We would also like to make a very special thank you to everyone on the Fundraising committee for their countless hours of planning and preparation to make it another huge success!

The council would like to welcome Ms. Hensman to the school and we are looking forward to a great year under her leadership!

The St. Clare welcome BBQ & Curriculum night will be held on Thursday September 20th (rain or shine – so pray for good weather). As always we will have hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and pop, juice or water for sale at the event. This is a great opportunity to meet your child’s new teachers for the year and get acquainted with some of the parents from the community. We will also have all our spirit wear on sale for anyone who is looking to show their school pride (please note that all items will be cash or cheque only). We hope to see you there!

Our first council meeting and elections will be held on Thursday September 27th at 7:00pm in the Library. If you will be attending, or plan to join council this year, please remember to fill out a nomination form (available at the office) and return to the office before the meeting.

Go Cougars Go!

Trish Ostberg – our trusted leader and friend! Trish will be leaving St. Clare to enjoy her retirement years back in her home town of Michigan. Trish has served the St. Clare community and the school for the past five years and not only does she leave us with many great memories but she has made our school a much better place! Trish has seen the school through many ups and downs including the Asbestos disaster that should have left the school in shambles but instead saw a better-than-ever institution and stronger community as ALL the staff rallied together to ensure that the school opened on time and no student missed one single day of their education (I’m sure the students may not be as impressed).

As a Principal and a leader, Trish has been supportive, enthusiastic, caring, committed, authoritative and fair! As a colleague and a friend she is generous, warm-hearted person that truly cares for this community and both the students and families that she has served. From Barbequing for 300 to showing her school spirit at all our events, she will be missed! We wish her well in her new endeavours! Shannon Hensman will be replacing Trish next and we welcome her and bringing in a new era for St. Clare.

Louise Allen – On behalf of the entire St. Clare community we wish to thank Mrs. Allen for twenty three years of service and dedication to our community and especially to the students. St. Clare has been truly blessed to have had you laying the foundation for our little ones in the primary division all these years. She has shown a kindness and caring that has nurtured the little ones and allowed their talents to start to shine. She has a way of making each one of them feel so very special.

Each day Mrs. Allen came to school with a smile on her face and a song in her heart that often can be heard echoing down the halls as she goes about her day. Her sense of humor is infectious and appreciated by those who work with her. If there was work that needed to be done, Mrs. Allen would be there to help in any way she could.

We wish you well as you move forward to the next stage of your life. Thank you again and know that you will be missed but never forgotten.

Phyllis McDonald – long time secretary at St. Clare made the decision to retire at the end of September. Mrs. McDonald served the community of St. Clare for eleven years. She was there to wipe tears, comfort the sick and forlorn and put on bandaids for the children of our school.

She knew each and every child by name and also their parents. Her excellent clerical skills kept St. Clare running smoothly. We thank Mrs. McDonald for her years of dedication to the St. Clare community and wish her health and happiness in her retirement. Mrs. McDonald will be forever remembered for her contribution to our school.

Mrs. Zanatta – will also be leaving us at the end of the school year. She has stepped in to fill the shoes of Mrs. Newell while she was on maternity leave. Mrs. Zanatta has guided our grade eight students to graduation. She has coached numerous sports teams and has assimilated into the community with ease and grace. Her happy demeanor and high energy has been a welcome addition to our school. We thank her for her contributions to the St. Clare community and wish her well in her future endeavors. Hopefully, one day she will return to St. Clare.

Pat McGuire – Our school council bids farewell to our Co-Chair, Mr. McGuire, who served the St. Clare community for well over a decade! Over his years on St. Clare council, Mr. McGuire played a key role in numerous undertakings, such as the installation of air conditioning, the addition of gymnasium ceiling fans, the introduction of the Kiss & Ride Program, the launch of ‘Spook-a-thon’ and spearheaded our schoolyard rehabilitation. No job or challenge was ever too great for Mr.McGuire!

He was a valuable presence on council – at meetings he had the ability to use his sense of humour to keep things light while ensuring that council stayed focused. His commitment to St. Clare was unwavering and he took pride in seeing the school grow and prosper. His voice will especially be missed at our annual St. Clare Carolling Night. Mr.McGuire was a blessing to our school – we will truly miss him!

Thank you as well to everyone who helped out with the day. We had a record number of parents (both moms and dads) as well as several students from Loyola that donated their time in order to make this a really fun and exciting day for St. Clare! A special thank you to Siobhan McCaig and Shona Cannon (our fundraising committee) for all the hours spent in developing, organizing, and executing this event.

Congratulations to all the students – everyone participated and worked really hard to make the day fun and competitive and congrats to our three medal teams as well for a job well done! We look forward to next years competition!

This year’s event was much more than just a breakfast – it was a fun-filled, actioned packed morning with acrobatics and pancakes flip-flying all over the place led by our very own Mr. Power! All the kids were chanting and cheering as the flap jacks went flying across the gym!

We look forward to seeing what will happen next year!

The movie will be: Dolphin Tale the true story of a friendship between a boy and a dolphin whose tail was lost in a crab trap. Admittance is free and the movie will start at 7:00pm in the gymnasium. All students must be accompanied by an adult. Matts will be set up in the gym for everyone to enjoy the movie, but parents are also welcome to bring their own lawn chairs to set up at the back if they prefer. There will be popcorn and water for sale at $1.00 each as well as $1.50 for a cup of movie candy. No RSVP is required. We hope to see you on the 27th.

We will of course have all our spirit wear on sale and this year the St. Clare Council is very excited to announce that we will be having a silent auction!!! There will be dozens of great items to bid on, so please go by the auction tables early and make your bid! (Please note that all items will be cash or cheque only.)

We hope you’ll be able to join us!

Thank you to all the students and parents for your generosity in supporting all of our fundraising initiatives we have have raised over $8,000 this year and that goes a very long way to supporting the many different events and programs that are supported by the council throughout the school year (please click here for a full listing of council supported initiative)

Thank you to the many parent and teacher volunteers who spend their extra time helping with fundraising events, sporting events, field trips and classroom activities. As well as the families whom have donated prizes to our fundraising events.

Thank you to all of our council members, especially the fundraising committee for their countless hours of planning and preparation to make these events such a HUGE success and so much fun for all the students!

And finally thank you to all the businesses who have made donations and contributions to so many different events throughout the school year:
Toronto Blue Jays, Mississauga St. Mike’s Majors, Classic Bowl, Mr. B’s, Kernals, Subway @ Woodchester Mall, Longo’s, Swiss Chalet, Party-Lite, Sobeys – Woodchester Plaza (Mr. Joe Feeney), Longos on Winston Churchill (Mr. Spyros Pangratis), Starbucks – Dundas @ Ridgeway, Tim Hortons – Woodchester Plaza, Sherwood Village Spa, AVON (Ms. Denise Poole), and Hershey Canada Inc.

Have a great summer from everyone on the St. Clare Council and we look forward to seeing you again in the fall!

Both presentations in our series “Staying Informed 2011″ were a great success and we would like to thank everyone on the councils of St. francis, St. Margaret of Scotland, Christ the King and St. Clare for their efforts in making this happen.

For next year we have added St. Marks and All Saints to our list of participants in this initiative and we are looking forward to getting more great speakers and presentations in the schools!