Norwalk Catholic School Development Office

Below are pictures of our Marine Biology students showing our preschool students the different specimens in the lab.  The Preschoolers enjoyed the touch tanks the most and the high school students had a great time showing them around.

Each year the development office consults with the many members of our school to find nominees for our annual Tradition of Service Award.  The
process always turns up many worthy individuals and businesses.  This year with the help of maintenance supervisor, Scott Lee, BOCA Construction was selected as the 2011 Business and Professional recipient.  Mr. Lee said that no matter what he needs, whether it is use oequipment, something to be delivered, or a cash donation, BOCA is there for him and Norwalk Catholic
School.  It was an honor to present the award to Mike Bockrath and Joe Caizzo at our 19th annual Business and Professional Breakfast.  Past recipients include:  Maple City Ice Co., Boose Farm Market, Inc., Schild’s IGA, Barman Construction, Outdoorsman, Domino’s Pizza, A.J. Riley, Inc., Wasiniak Construction, Newcomer Concrete   Services, Inc., Smith Paving & Excavating, Inc., Lake Erie Construction, Fisher’s Transmission Center, Inc., Mark Schaffer Excavating, Miller Landscape & Gardens, Wheeler Sheet Metal, Buckeye Construction, and Riley Contracting.  Last year Jake’s Radiator received the business award and Larry Opper received the professional award.  We thank all these businesses that have been honored and those that have yet to be honored for all you do for Norwalk Catholic
School.  With your help we are able to fulfill our mission to provide a quality, affordable Catholic education to our students.


 

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Erika Ghazoul's Senior Project - 93 Cents for Flight 93 My experience with the organization “93 Cents for Flight 93” began in the summer of 2010 when I met a family friend, Sharon Deitrick.  She is the National Director for the Halo Foundation which was raising money for the Flight 93 Memorial set to be erected in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  She told me of events, fund raising opportunities, and visits that I could participate in as a student leader for the organization.  After filling out the application and going through the interview process, I was accepted as a National Student Leader for the “93 Cents for Flight 93” initiative.  I was very excited to start participating. 

            I did not really know a lot about the events on September 11, 2001, much less Flight 93 before meeting Ms. Deitrick.  The only things I remember from that day in second grade are teachers crying, parents taking their kids from class, and the news being on constantly at my house.  Then, in my junior year, I was brought much closer to that September day than I had ever imagined.

            On September 11, 2010, I was able to make the three-hour trek to Shanksville, Pennsylvania to see the crash site where a memorial service was to be held.  In attendance included former first lady Laura Bush and first lady Michelle Obama who both gave speeches.  I was also able to interview the family members of the heroes aboard Flight 93 who wanted to have their heroic relatives be an example of courage for those in my generation.  I was so touched by the memorial that when I got back, I arranged for David Beamer, Todd Beamer’s father, to come speak at our school for the ten-year anniversary of September 11.  Todd Beamer was one of the one of the heroes of Flight 93 who said “Let’s Roll” to the other passengers when they tried to retake the plane from the terrorists.

            As the months progressed, I participated in conference calls, Facebook group posts, and e-mails with other student leaders, but one of my favorite student leader-focused occasions was the LEADR retreat.  At the beginning of August (right before my senior year) my sister and I joined seven other teens for four days in Akron at the Jesuit Retreat House.  Besides making friends with all those in attendance, I was able to learn even more about Flight 93 and our mission as students leaders (to educate others about the heroes aboard Flight 93, to raise funds for the memorial in Shanksville, PA, and to teach courage though the actions of the heroes).  Every day we listened to people speak of their leadership experience and what it takes them to accomplish their goals.  We did a number of activities that helped us understand how to work with different kinds of people and how to make each other’s strengths and weaknesses harmonize in order to make the final product the best it could be.

            Right after I got back from LEADR, I started organizing a fund raising event that I could host at St. Paul during the week that we had planned for Mr. David Beamer to come.  After going through enough steno pad pages to fill a dumpster, I came up with a plan for the week before September 11 which included reading the names and profiles of the heroes of Flight 93, selling desserts to the high school during lunch, showing a NBC special about Flight 93 called “No Greater Love” (which can be viewed on hulu.com) in the social studies classes, selling t-shirts which paid tribute to the forty heroes, and of course having Mr. Beamer speak to the high school and junior high. 

            Everything went very well leading up to Mr. and Mrs. Beamer’s visit.  My classmates, as well as the entire high school, faculty and staff, responded like true champions.  The fund raising response was overwhelming!  Mr. and Mrs. Schild, along with classmates and faculty, donated all the baked goods for the entire week of fund raising.  Their generosity will never be forgotten.

 

The highlight of the week was being able to meet and hear Mr. Beamer speak at St. Paul on September 8th.  He told us how their Christian faith enabled his family to heal after Todd’s death and that it inspires them to teach about the lessons they learned through their healing.  I very much enjoyed at the end of his speech when he told us to use his son’s last words, “Let’s Roll,” as our life motto in anything we do.  He asked us to do the right thing in every decision we make during our lives and follow the teachings of Christ to help guide us when we have difficult decisions to make. 

            With the incredible response from St. Paul High School, we have raised over $1,000 throughout the week.  The money will be donated for the construction of the Memorial in Shanksville, PA for the brave men and women, who, as President George Bush said, fought the first battle against the terrorists on September 11, 2001.

  I am very grateful to the St. Paul High School students, faculty and staff, as well as the local Norwalk community, for helping to raise the money for the Flight 93 Memorial. I hope that I was able to educate our school, through Mr. Beamer’s presentation, about courage, the importance of defending our democracy, and always making the right decisions based upon our Christian faith.

Learn more through the links below

http://93centsforflight93.org/

http://93centsforflight93.org/campaign/about/

http://www.hulu.com/watch/5138/nbc-news-specials-flight-93-no-greater-love

Knock, knock!  It‘s motivation knocking at your door and it wants you to open up.  When was the last time you were easily motivated to go to the gym, run a mile, or volunteer generously for your local organizations?  If you can honestly say you do these things all the time then I give you credit!  For the most of us it’s not so easy.

There are two key terms that go hand in hand with each other in almost anything we do.  These would be motivation and risk.  These two tie together because every decision that you make requires some sort of risk, even if it isn’t anything big.  Motivation is everywhere, including  pushing yourself to get up in the morning.  Motivation and risk do wonders for people who want to be successful.  Success doesn’t mean owning a big mansion, a yacht, and three fancy cars.  Success comes from being happy with your life and having realized the dreams you wanted to come true.

In short, success, motivation, and risks are what make life what it really should be.  As the saying goes, “people avoid risks in life to make it safely to death.”  People who go about their normal routine with nothing special aren’t truly living to their fullest.  Without risking things, what joy is there in accomplishing something?

Over the past four months I have been able to participate in the Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership program.  Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership programs provide youth selected by their schools to participate in unique leadership training, service-learning and motivation-building experiences.  My HOBY experiences have changed my life.  I know that might sound corny, but there could not be anything truer!  I realized you don’t need anything besides an idea to make something happen and be happy with the outcome.  You start with nothing and with enough motivation and risk taking you can make something amazing happen.  All you need to do is to believe in yourself.  Believe that you WILL make a difference, that you will be the person to stick out and be the change.

The first way that I really realized this was true was when I started raising money for my World Leadership Conference trip to Chicago, IL.  This is HOBY's annual international youth leadership event.  It is a dynamic leadership program that brings together students (or "ambassadors" as we like to call them here at HOBY) from the U.S. and abroad.  This group of over 400 ambassadors is made up of U.S. high school students and international students from all over the world. They meet for a week-long, life-changing, educational and leadership skills building program. When I started rasing money the risk involved was a little frightening and I was worried that it would backfire on me.  I don’t like being let down and I knew I would be because not everyone I asked would want to donate something.  It was hard to push that thought out of my head but I made it happen.  This, luckily, was not the case.  I set a goal for myself and focused all the motivation I needed to make it happen!  A month later I ended up with roughly $1,500 and then some with the help of our Development Director, Mr. Fair.

We all have things we personally consider risks.  Some won’t step out of their house in a new outfit because they’re afraid they might get ridiculed.  Others won’t try a new meal because they just simply might not like it.  Are these really the things that we want to have set us back? NO!  We all need to be risk takers and take chances; fail and try again!  This is what life is supposed to be like, right?  No one is successful every time they try or do something new.  Why are we avoiding such limitless opportunities that are waiting for us?

Sometimes I feel unmotivated, living life without direction, but going to a place like HOBY and the World Leadership Congress and then going back home, it’s not the same at all!  Everything is different: the environment, the attitudes, the energy levels, and most importantly, the motivation.  People don’t realize how easy it really is to get motivated.  We all need to add more positivity to our lives.  Just putting on a smile after someone knocked your books out of your hand can alter your whole attitude about things that happen in your life. This will start a chain reaction with others!

Let’s do this together, a few little good deeds or nice actions at a time will make an unbelievable difference in the end!  Change your attitude when you feel mad or down.  Listen to some upbeat music when you’re sad.  A quote that has stuck with me this summer is from  Muhatma Ghandi  “Just be the change you want to see in the world.”  I now try to live that philosophy at St. Paul High School everyday.

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 On Saturday night at Whitney Field the 2011 St. Paul Homecoming Queen will be crowned surrounded by her court.  Each year the Homecoming Queen hopefuls select a favorite charity to receive a $200 donation made in the Homecoming Queen’s name.  The candidates and their charity of choice are listed below:

Colleen Corrigan, daughter of Tim and Carol Corrigan, has chosen Stein Hospice for its integrity, courage, excellence, respect, and compassion. Colleen supports this organization because they comforted her family during her Grandma’s illness. In honor of her Grandma, she is supporting Stein Hospice.

CeCe Hanline, daughter of Bob and Lisa Hanline, selected Invisible Children which works to end the abduction of children and their forced enlistment into the Ugandan army. This organization works to educate young Ugandans through scholarship and mentorship programs. The program also helps rebuild war-affected schools and creates jobs to assist in the development of their economy. She hopes the support she gives to this cause will bless them with the opportunities they need to succeed.

Kimmie Rospert, daughter of Lori and Steve Rospert, chose the National Breast Cancer Foundation because they dedicate themselves to providing help for today and hope for tomorrow by providing free mammograms for women in need to promote early breast cancer detection. This foundation is very close to her heart since her grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer and died in September, 2008. Her hope is that someday a cure can be found, but until then she feels it is an honor to give to NBCF.

Corynne Smith, daughter of Mark and Patty Smith, has chosen the Huron County Humane Society which provides care for animals rescued from cruelty and neglect. She supports this cause because animals are very close to her heart and she believes no animal deserves abandonment, abuse, or neglect.

The underclassmen attendants are freshman Alice Hanline, daughter of Bob and Lisa Hanline; sophomore Melissa Guerrero, daughter of Gisela Guerrero; junior Taylor Hartman, daughter of Rita Jackson and Gene Hartman.

The homecoming parade begins at 6PM, followed by crowning of the Homecoming Queen.

The Flyers play the South Central Trojans at 7PM.