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St. Vincent's School celebrates Catholic Schools Week
By Erin McShay, The Cottonwood/Holladay Journal (April, 2007)
St. Vincent’s School in Holladay
celebrated Catholic School Week by
raising money for St. Rita’s School in
New Orleans, La., a school still recuperating
from the devastating effects of
Hurricane Katrina. Each day, students
collected pennies for pencils, nickels for
note pads, dimes for desks, quarters for
quality equipment and bucks for binders.
Even the pre-K classes participated
in the donations and were taught the
importance of helping those in need.
 “The children have been watching
their money jar grow with delight,” said
Kathie Scuirba, the school’s pre-K
teacher. “Recently a child found a penny
on the floor and said, ‘Look, let’s give it
to the poor people. Now they can buy
lots of things.' It brought a tear to
my eye. I thought that was so special.
Four-year-olds are incredibly giving and
loving.”
Prinicipal Mark Longe said, “The
theme this year was ‘Good News in
Education.’ All the classes participated
in writing the school newspaper, the
Good News Gazette, to prepare for the
week. Each day a different group was
recognized for their outstanding work at
school. First we had teachers’ appreciation,
then parents’ appreciation followed
where the parents joined their child for
lunch, and students’ appreciation where
the kids were given a free dress day and
played in volleyball and basketball tournaments.
One day, no homework was
assigned as the student body was asked
to spend 30 minutes reading together as
a family.”
“This year’s global theme was to recognize
a community in the world, and we
chose Darfur because of the extreme conditions,”
said Longe. “It helps kids reach
out and try to see beyond the community
we live in.” The middle school students
wrote letters to senators and congressmen
in Washington, D.C., urging them to take
action over the genocide in Darfur. Chris
McIntyre, who teaches sixth grade, said,
“It helps open their eyes to the world
around them and see we have so much,
and others have so little.”
On Feb. 10, the school also had its
12th annual community and school auction,
the largest fundraiser of the year.
This year’s theme was Saturday Night
Fever. Last year the school earned
$92,000 which helped build a new playground
and outdoor pavilion. Money
raised this year will allow the school to
allocate funds for educational field trips,
purchase books, provide scholarships to
families in need and support student
community service learning projects. Photo Credit: Valley Journals
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