Letters From the Board Chair

January 25, 2023

Dear Members of the SHCA Community:

Thank you to the parents who attended the meeting on January 11th to continue the process of forming parent groups at Sacred Heart. We enjoyed the opportunity to meet with you and hear the wonderful ideas you shared about community events and fundraising. For those who were unable to attend the meeting but would still like to be involved, please use the link included with this email to sign up. The Home Academy Association will focus on fun school events such as Breakfast with Santa and the St. Patrick’s/St. Joseph’s Dinner. The Parent Fundraising Committee will help with our major fundraisers, which for this year will be the Walkathon, and hopefully a golf outing and dinner dance that one of our parents has graciously agreed to coordinate. Participation in these fundraisers is an important part of the overall success of our school. In addition, the golf outing/dinner dance has the potential to be our major community event for the year, but for it to become a reality, the help of many parents is needed. The date is set for Friday, June 2nd, at the Douglaston Manor golf course and catering hall. In past years, this was a fun-filled day and evening that also helped to raise needed funds for the school. Please take the time to sign up for one or both of our parent committees. A follow-up meeting will then be scheduled to select leaders for each committee and move forward with the planning process. Breakfast with Santa is the perfect example of how successful our events can be. Thank you to Marci Tempesta, Mrs. Conlan, Mrs. Barker, and everyone who volunteered for this event, which is undoubtedly a favorite among the children!

We are happy to welcome Mrs. Farfan as our new kindergarten teacher! We wish her and the kindergarten students and parents well as they move forward in this significant and formative year.

Special thanks to Nicola Fressle, who is organizing our Super Bowl Fundraiser. The New York teams may be out of contention for the Super Bowl, but we can still enjoy some competition of our own and raise money for the school at the same time!

Catholic Schools Week is rapidly approaching. The week will begin with the 10:00 AM Mass this Sunday, January 29th, which all students and their families are encouraged to attend. Please also take advantage of our annual Scholastic Book Fair, which will be open after Mass on Sunday as well as on Monday and Tuesday. Parent volunteers are still needed for Sunday, so please contact board member Ann DeBenedittis at [email protected] if you would like to help. The book fair offers the opportunity to expand your children’s home library and helps the school earn credits with Scholastic that can be used to purchase additional books for the school. Also, registration has begun, so please take this opportunity to register so that we can begin planning for next year.

Finally, congratulations to our eighth graders, who recently received an impressive set of high school acceptances and scholarships. We are proud of all the hard work that brought them to this point, and we look forward to seeing where they choose to go! The success of our students is always a wonderful reminder of what a dedicated and talented group of faculty members we have at Sacred Heart. Their ongoing commitment to their students is truly appreciated. 

Sincerely,

Annmarie McLaughlin and the SHCA Board of Trustees