Recent News

6th Grade Stewardship

(October 28, 2022) Sixth grade’s stewardship focus this year is hunger. They have several activities planned throughout the year that lead up to their final project, the Hunger Feast. To kick things off, they are organizing a food drive for November 7-11, 2022.

Four students, Sloan Cranford, Calvin Cusack, Chloe Dean and Harper Kobler, gave up three recess days to create a PowerPoint slide show that will be presented to all classrooms on November 4. All sixth graders will be a part of presenting the slides made by these four classmates.

Each day of the drive has a special theme. “Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. (Sally) Kincaid gave us the subject for each day and then we put together the presentation. The themes are Macaroni Monday, Toiletry Tuesday, Cleaning Supplies, Fruits and Vegetables, and Boxed Foods,” explained Harper.

Sloan explained that cleaning supplies can be “Anything that can be used to clean. Wet wipes, sponges, Clorox spray.”

When talking about the presentation, Chloe shared “I’m really excited to present to the younger kids. I want to see how they react to the fun things we put in the slides.” Sloan went on to say, “I’m not really nervous about presenting to other kids. I feel like no matter what, they’re going to be nice because it’s for a good cause.”

Students should place donation items in their classroom boxes, provided by 6^th grade. “Every classroom collects their stuff and then we (6^th graders) will go around during our recess time and pick it up,” said Calvin.

All of the students remembered the food drive from past years, either because they had older siblings involved in the drive or because they themselves brought in items. “When I was younger I remember going to WalMart and picking up things with my family,” said Chloe.

During past drives, the students recalled seeing classrooms bring in anywhere from two to 50 items each in one day. “We hope we’ll get a lot of pieces, I mean we have 500 kids here at school,” said Sloan. Added Chloe, “Sometimes it’s kind of like an unspoken battle between classmates and classes.”

To get the students thinking about service and what it means, they recently completed a group presentation answering questions such as what is service and how can we show it. They then presented to their classmates using videos, slide shows, posters, songs, raps, and commercials. All four students agreed that the assignment was fun and interesting.

The entire 6^th grade will deliver the school’s donations to Sophia’s Kitchen on November 18. This includes packing the vehicles with the items, and then unpacking and bringing items inside at the kitchen. “I’m really excited to bring everything to Sophia’s Kitchen,” said Sloan. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been there.”

On October 27, Dominica Rogers from Midwest Food Bank came to St. Philomena to talk to the 6th grade on food insecurities, food deserts and hunger. Sixth graders will take a field trip to the Midwest Food Bank on December 2 for hands-on experience in what happens at the Food Bank and to gain an understanding of what service is really about. After Christmas break, Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Kincaid will kick-off the Hunger Feast with the students and really begin preparing for the spring event.

“We’re excited to host the Hunger Feast again. It’s truly something they will remember for the rest of their lives. To see students actually plan and execute this event, it’s such a beautiful project,” said Mrs. Murphy.

7th Grade Stewardship

(September 23, 2022) – Last year, Mrs. Sue Tony’s homeroom (6T), wrote letters to senior parishioners who were homebound, maybe couldn’t get out as much as they used to or don’t have family in the area with them. This effort was so successful and well-received that when Mrs. Tony moved to a 7^th grade homeroom this year, she decided to continue sending the cards and Mrs. Colleen Donlan’s classroom (7D) is also on board. This year they have been able to add even more parishioners to the list.

Briana Hernandez and Theodore Girsch are currently 7^th graders and were in 6T last year. “It made us feel good that we were reaching out to our community and helping other people,” said Briana.

The card recipients were thrilled and started writing cards back to the students. From there a pen pal relationship evolved. “They would tell us that we cheered up their day and they were hoping for more letters from us later on,” said Briana.

“We were told that they decorated their rooms with our cards,” added Theodore. He continued, “Our cards were themed with the holidays and sometimes they would tell us a story about their holidays when they were younger.”

The students said that at Christmas their pen pals unexpectedly sent them hot chocolate bombs, a very fun surprise. And while they weren’t writing to receive hot chocolate bombs in return, you can see that beautiful things happened between the generations by building community.

In addition to the pen pal relationship, both seventh grade classes have chosen to serve St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and its patients this year. While it’s early in the school year and they are still ironing out details for the year, they are starting with weaving hats and conducting a coin collection throughout October.

When asked if he had ever woven yarn before, Jack Hapke said “I have not, but I am enjoying it!” Jack went on to say, “I hope that we will be able to hand deliver the hats so we can meet some of the people who are receiving them.”

The students shared that in October they are embarking on a “Coins for Cures” fundraising effort. “We will first create a presentation and then go to each classroom, with the 7^th grade homerooms each taking half of the school. We’ll set out decorated jars and ask people to share their spare change by putting it in the jar,” said Theodore. The students plan to collect money throughout the month. “We hope to bring the money with us to St. Jude when we bring the hats,” concluded Jack.

St. Philomena Tumbler & Water Bottle

(September 6, 2022) We are excited to share this online store for the purchase of SPS 30oz tumblers and 20oz water bottles! The items feature our new SPS paw and the price includes optional personalization. The logo on the bottle will be the logo pictured here in black and white, NOT the logos that you see pictured on the bottles at the bottom of this page.

The store will be open September 6-20, 2022. All orders are online and must be placed by 11:55 p.m. on September 20.

Completed orders will take about four weeks and will be delivered to the school office and distributed from there. If you’d like to pick up your item from the parish office, in case you do not have a child in school, that is an option during our regular hours (Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.). Sorry, we cannot deliver.

If you have questions, contact Rhonda Parker in the parish office at 309-682-8642 or parish@stphils.com. To access the order form, click here.

PTO Sign-Up

(August 23, 2022) PTO is excited to fully implement most of our past events and add new into our 2022-23 school calendar. As a PTO member, you can help plan, organize, and run events such as Tanner’s Night, Trunk or Treat, Catholic Schools Week, Trivia Night, SweetHeart Ball, Olympic Day, and more. To sign up please click here. 

Contact Sara McKee if you have questions, saramdavis@yahoo.com.