Week 6

This week, we ushered in a new group of student leaders: our 2026–2027 Student Council at CK. This year's fresh edition of our student council includes representatives from each homeroom and an Executive Council. To formally begin serving our school community, our newly elected student leaders led our all-school Mass on Wednesday.

We are excited to recognize them below:

4th - Gavin Pfandler and Conor Winters, Kate Ellsworth and Walter Kramer

5th - Ben Hurley and Winifred Jensen, Jack Gallagher and Mary Donnelly

6th - Seamus Singler, Neil McAuliffe and Maeve Donoghue

7th - Emmie Kreh and Cossette Pfandler, Maddie Moulis and Olivia Nissan

8th - Corrine Walsh and Liam Pfandler, Maggie Lynch and Len Roberts

Our Student Council is led by an outstanding group of 8th grade leaders. This year’s election was incredibly close, a testament to the strength of the students who stepped forward to serve their school community. Helping us Be the Light in our care for our planet and parish are Eliza Jackson, Environment Team Lead, and Jane Donnelly, Community Team Lead. In an ever-connected world, Henry Phillips, Tech Team Lead, will help lead us through technology, while Anne Stoiber, Religion Team Lead, will keep our Catholic faith at the foundation of our work. Bringing energy and school pride is Tatum Silva, Spirit Team Lead, while Therese Kramer, Team Coordinator, will help bring all of these efforts together. Keeping everyone organized and on track is our Secretary, Joe Moody.

Finally, helping lead the entire Student Council are our Vice President, Ben Wilmes, and our 2026–2027 Student Council Presiden, Maddie Donoghue. Ben enters his 11th and final year at CK, and he is eager to make a difference. After being on student council for three years, Ben looked to the impact of Marty Moody and Danny Widmayer in previous years and hopes to make a similar positive impression on his school. Maddie joined CK during her elementary school years and quickly knew she wanted to be an example to her classmates. Confident in her ability to make a difference, she hopes to “encourage everyone to treat each other with kindness” while bringing new ideas for assemblies, dress-down days, and other opportunities to build community and school spirit.

Feliz Mes de la Herencia Hispana! Each year from September 15 to October 15, Americans celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month and the contributions of citizens whose heritage can be traces to Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. This annual holiday began as "Hispanic Heritage Week" in 1968 and was expanded to a month in 1988. September 15th was chosen as the starting date because it marks the anniversary of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, followed the next day the independence day of Mexico (1810) with the famous "Grito de Dolores."

Today, Hispanic Americans are an increasingly important part of the fabric of America. According to the latest U.S. Census estimates, Hispanic-Americans represent approximately 20% of the U.S. population and are the nation's largest ethnic minority. (This is a neat social studies resource to share with curious minds) Illinois is among 16 states that now have over 1 million Hispanic residents. Hispanic-Americans continue to shape our country's families, our neighborhoods, our schools, the workplaces and spaces we are in each day as well as our arts and culture. The community also continues to make a tremendous impact on the Catholic Church in Chicago and around the country.

We had over 70 submissions from 1st to 8th grade for our t-shirt contest. Thank you to everyone who submitted designs, but we have to showcase our older students who have some excellent design ideas. Please voice your top choice here (see poll below) and we will choose a winner with the parent vote, teacher vote, and pastor/principal vote by the end of the week. Shirts will then be open for purchase by students and families.

This year, Christ the King School is embracing “Be the Light” as our school-wide theme. Last year, the newsletter would "spotlight" staff, students, teams and organizations at CK who were doing great things. We will continue that this year but through the year-long theme.

This week's spotlight shines on Francesca Bottari, who beautifully represented our school at the CK Foundation Gala mass last Saturday. Francesca played Ave Maria on the piano during Communion, sharing her talents at one of the biggest events on our parish calendar. She has been playing piano since she was four years old and enjoys all kinds of music, especially playing Thriller. Francesca says playing brings her a sense of calm as she focuses on how “you can play quick or slow, and the notes all come together in a pretty melody.” After Ms. F and Mr. McNamara encouraged choir members who play instruments to take a more featured role at mass, Francesca stepped up and played a song she had only first learned last year. While she admitted, “I was a little [nervous] at first,” she added, “once I start playing, I feel calm.” By confidently sharing her gifts with our parish community, Francesca showed exactly what it means to be the light in our parish.

How do you get an event, outing or organization into our school newsletter? Well, it's as simple as emailing announcement@ck-school.org and specifying what it is. If including a flyer or anything visual, please send it as a JPEG, JPG, PNG.

We would like to give parents the opportunity to meet our two new teaches, Mr. Crisostomo Valencia (3rd grade) and Mr. Michael Scelonge (5th/6th grade math). We are hosting a meet and greet after the 9am mass on Sunday, September 27th. The Men's Club is sponsoring and will purchase coffee and donuts. This is open to anyone in our school and parish.

BCK Homecoming Tailgate Party October 4th, 2026: 11am Start Time

DFL (4th grade) Game 12:15pm
JV (5th and 6th grades) Game 1:30pm
8th Grade Flower Ceremony 3:00pm
Varsity (7th and 8th grades) Game 3:30pm

Tent Decorating Competition with Prize

Setup

• Tent setup may begin at 11:00am and is limited to the first 30 registered tents.
• Tents must be pre-registered to participate in the decorating contest: Pre Register Here
• Tents must be positioned at least 10 feet back from the BCK sidelines. The area behind the BCK team tents toward the street must remain completely clear for emergency vehicle access. This area will be marked.
• Multiple families are welcome to join together and decorate one tent. Each tent counts as one contest entry.

Decorating

• Have fun and get creative! There is no required theme.
• All decorations must stay within the tent's designated area and may not obstruct the view of the field or interfere with players, spectators or game operations.
• Please keep decorations safe and secure. No items may be placed on the field, sidelines, fences, goalposts or other game equipment.
• Each family is responsible for the take-down and disposal of their tent and decorations.

Judging

• Each registered tent will receive an entry number.
• Tents must be completely decorated and ready for judging at 1:15 pm
• Judges will consider creativity, overall appearance, use of space and BCK/Homecoming spirit.
• The winning tent will be announced and receive its prize at halftime of the JV game

Food & Entertainment Throughout the Day Includes:

TV set up for watch NFL games, DJ Music, Face-painting, Split the Pot, Raffle Baskets, Fat Tommy’s Food Truck & more

*** We are starting later in the day, so we will not be hosting a team breakfast. Families are encouraged to bring tents, their own food and tailgate games to enjoy.

Walk of Champions:

Each team will be walking from the far north side of Beverly park before the start of their game. Pump-up music will be playing while our mascot will lead them through a balloon arch, a cheer tunnel and BCK Banner! Varsity Football and cheer teams will be escorted by the St Rita Drumline to the field for their pre-game warm up. Team blessing before each game’s national anthem. Go Knights!

Sign up here: Femnest