Crusader Connections

January 25: All SOMD Catholic Schools Mass (grades 3-8)

January 27: Monthly Activity (grades 6-8)

January 29 - February 4: Catholic Schools Week

January 31: Report Cards Posted on Portal

February 1: STEM Night

Our FIRST LEGO League Robotics Team competed in a regional tournament this past weekend. They presented their invention, the Electric Eagle to a team of engineer judges. The students clearly articulated their solution to needing to charge a cell phone while at the beach. They created wind energy by using a kite and a wind turbine that had a generator which could create energy to charge a phone. After their skit and presentation, the team competed in the robotics course. Months of hard work researching, problem solving, coding, and engineering, which involved building and programming a LEGO robot was evident as they navigated the missions in the challenge. Of the five total awards given, Father Andrew White School earned two! They were the top place finisher in the Robotics portion and they were the overall Grand Champions for the tournament!

We wish them well as they compete in the State Tournament next month. A big congratulations goes to this team as well as their coach, Ms. Rowland and their mentors, Mr. George and Mrs. Sarlo.

All of this was possible due to a very generous grant from the MIL Foundation that gave our students the necessary tools and the funds they needed to participate in this opportunity. Not only did the MIL Foundation provide the funds needed for the robots and MacBooks for this team, but they also gave enough to purchase extra robots and computers for our STEM program so that younger students can learn to code too! Many, many thanks to the MIL Foundation!

We are very grateful for their support that inspires our students to become the technological leaders of our future!

Registration for the 2023-2024 school year opened last Monday, January 16th. All of our current families should have received an email from TADS notifying them of the pending enrollment process. Families can complete re-enrollment forms through their TADS account online at https://secure.tads.com/Accounts/Login.aspx. NOTE: The easiest way to complete the process is to click on the link that will be included in your email.

Please complete the forms by February 6, 2023.

Admissions for prospective families will open on February 7, 2023. http://mytads.com/a/fatherandrewwhiteschool

Your January gift card purchases can make an even bigger impact on our organization in 2023. Every order placed between now and January 31st equals an entry for our organization to win free shipping for the rest of the year. Five organizations will win so let's make FAW one of them!

Place your order today!

*The February menu will close this Friday, January 27th

*The March menu will close on February 17th

You are welcome to place both orders at once, but this is not mandatory.

We had a nice Winter Band and Chorus Concert thanks to our hard working students and their music instructors! Thank you to our Band teacher, Ms. Etter and our Music/Chorus teacher, Mrs. Cacko!

There will be a general Auction/Social planning meeting today, Tuesday, January 24th at 6:30pm at the Front Porch restaurant. All are welcome! If you have any questions please reach out to Jen Tennyson at 240-298-9056.

Report cards will be posted on the Parent Portal on Tuesday, January 31st. If you need assistance logging into the Parent Portal, please contact Mrs. Greer at greer@fatherandrewwhite.org.

Be sure that your parent volunteer hours have been submitted. At this point, you should have completed 12-13 hours to stay on pace to fulfill your 25 hour commitment if you are a Service Scholarship family. https://fatherandrewwhite.org/volunteer-hours-log/

We wanted to share the news that the AmazonSmile program is ending on February 20, 2023. Over the years our school has earned over $1,000. We encourage you to place orders for Amazon shopping at www.Smile.Amazon.com for the next month to ensure that our school will earn money for the duration of the program. Thank you!

Catholic Schools Week starts this Sunday, January 29th. To kick off the weeklong celebration, each of our three parishes will highlight our school at the Masses this weekend.

You are all cordially invited to share in the liturgical celebration at St. Aloysius (Leonardtown), St. Francis Xavier (Compton), or Our Lady’s (Medley’s Neck). Students - please wear your uniforms to Mass this weekend!

The FAW Rhythm Rejoicers will continue with our tradition of singing at the 11:00am Mass at St. Aloysius this upcoming Sunday (January 29th) to kick off Catholic Schools Week. Here is what you need to know:

1. Students should arrive at 10:00am to the church. This gives us time to rehearse our songs and get settled in the church.

2. Students should wear their school uniforms.

Our Open House (by appointment only) to invite interested new families to visit our wonderful school will be held on Tuesday, January 31st from 3:00 – 5:30pm. We appreciate that our families are the best ambassadors for FAW and your word of mouth about our school is the best PR we have! Please help us get the word out about our next Open House to all prospective family and friends. Great things are happening at Father Andrew White! Note: Admissions for prospective families will open on February 7, 2023.

We're gearing up for our annual Catholic Schools Week celebrations at the end of January! The Home & School Association is planning a rally in the school gym on February 4th at 2:30pm to close out Catholic Schools Week as we celebrate our families. We want to show our basketball teams our support by having all the FAW fans participate in the #FAWwhiteout, where everyone shows up to cheer the teams on in a wave of white!

We are now posting our basketball schedules and the results from our games on our website. Please see the link below!

📣 🏀 Go Crusaders! 🏀 📣

Take a chance (or 2 or 3!) on being one of the 31 winners in the third FAW Lottery Fundraiser! With $2,725 in cash prizes, this is a great opportunity to support the school and have a chance to come away a WINNER!!! Be sure to ask your family and friends to see if they'd like the chance to put a little extra cash in their wallets, too! Please see the flyer below to see how you have 31 chances to win! Tickets came home in an envelope last week!

Do you have an announcement you’d like to put in our weekly bulletin? Or perhaps you went to an FAW event, such as a basketball game, and you’d like to share some information or photos you took. We have created an email where you can send pictures, blurbs, etc. This will help us get new items in our bulletin, on our lobby TV, and on our website. Email: FAWnews@fatherandrewwhite.org Please send anything you’d like considered in the Announcements by Friday evening of the week prior.

Let’s face it – being a parent is hard... especially when it comes to dealing with illness and injuries. There are some set rules to follow for when to keep children home from school (found in the Parent/ Student Handbook on page 11): if they have temperature of 100.4 or above, are experiencing severe stomach issues (nausea/ vomiting/ diarrhea), or if they are feeling too ill to function. That last one has a lot of gray area, but you know your children better than anyone. Some mornings they are just tired (and need to go to bed earlier) or they may be having some anxiety related feelings (test day, etc). Try to get them to eat a nutritious breakfast and remind them to drink lots of water and wash their hands often. Also encourage them by saying something positive or praying together. Often once they are “up and going” they no longer focus on not feeling good and are able to function fine (even if they do have a cold or other lingering or chronic symptoms). Please remember that when a student is absent from school due to an illness, a parent is required to notify the school office with the nature of the illness (by phone or email). If they have been diagnosed with something contagious and are taking an antibiotic, they must have been on the antibiotic for at least 24 hours, and they must bring a doctor’s note when returning to school.

Please join us in prayer for a fellow Catholic school student from St. Mary's Bryantown. You can follow his journey at Finns Fierce Fight.

The Home & School Association is seeking a Co-Chairperson (or Chair Team) and committees to plan and organize one of our biggest and best events of the year: the Spring Social & Auction! The groundwork has already been laid for the Social & Auction this April, but we need teams in place to continue with the rest of the planning! Here are the positions that we need filled immediately:

- Spring Social & Auction Co-Chairperson

- Spring Social & Auction Planning Committee Members

Duties include soliciting sponsorships and donations, planning details, some marketing, logistics and executing the event. We’d love your outside-the-box ideas! Chairpersons of this event qualify for the complete fulfillment of the Service Scholarship/Volunteer Hours. If you’re interested in helping with this event, please email our HSA President, Jen Tennyson at jntennyson@gmail.com to get started! The Home & School Association (HSA) is grateful for any time or resources you are able to give!

❏ Attend the Spring Social/Auction meeting (today)

❏ Order Hot Lunch (by Friday)

❏ Attend Catholic Schools Week Kickoff Mass (this weekend)

❏ Re-enroll your student(s)

❏ Sell/Purchase FAW Lottery Tickets

❏ Order gift cards (especially this month)

❏ Shop through smile.amazon.com

❏ Send in items for the Brown Bag Auction

❏ Send news and pictures to FAWnews@fatherandrewwhite.org

❏ Submit Volunteer Hours

Email: office@fatherandrewwhite.org
Website: https://www.fatherandrewwhite.org
Location: 22850 Washington Street, Leonardtown, MD, USA
Phone: (301) 475-9795
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fawschool/
Twitter: @FAWcrusaders