Busy Spring at St. Ambrose

  The St. Ambrose School Community has participated in several special events in April and May.  Among the highlights are the Car Wash, Mission Carnival, May Crowning, School Picnic, and the House Day Olympics.  The slideshow above shows photos from each of the events.  Below are descriptions and additional information.

Car Wash

The car wash on April 20th was sponsored by the Girls on the Run and the Student Council of St. Ambrose.  The proceeds went to Backstoppers to support our police officers and firefighters.  A police helicopter landing, arranged by Officer Ron Danback, added to the excitement of the day.  With the help of Mr. Ray Hummel, there was also a fire truck on hand, and some lucky students got to sit behind the wheel.  Mr. and Mrs. Fuse provided some refreshment with the gelato cart.  A total of $700 was raised, and a lot of happy people drove off in clean cars. 

Mission Carnival

On Friday, April 12, St. Ambrose Student Council held a Mission Carnival for the students of St. Ambrose School. Student Council did much planning and preparation to make the carnival as enjoyable as possible. The carnival included activities such as a giant blow-up obstacle course, many fun games, face painting, and fresh popcorn courtesy of the Athletic Association. The obstacle course was a huge hit. Members of STUCO tracked how long students took to complete the course. Jimmy Lahrman ended up with the winning time of 13 seconds. Overall, the Mission Carnival was a huge success. Over $1,000 was raised to be split between four different Respect Life charities. Student Council did a great job of raising money for charity while having fun and providing an unforgettable time for students.

By: Andrew Grassi

May Crowning

On May 6th, after Communion during the 8:00 a.m. Mass, the second graders led the St. Ambrose community in prayer and song, as they crowned a statue of the Blessed Mother.  Dressed in their First Communion finery, the students processed down the center aisle and placed flowers in vases in front of the sanctuary.

School Picnic 

It was a perfect day for a picnic on May 7th, as the St. Ambrose School Community gathered outdoors to enjoy the rides, games, food and fun on the parish grounds.  A great time was had by all.

House Day Olympics

The four houses gathered for a morning of team building exercises at Berra Park on Thursday, May 9th.  A light on and off rain threatened to spoil the activities, but our crew marched on.  The rest of day was spent in the school gym.  A special thanks to our teachers, Mrs. Debbie Hilderbrand, Mrs. Kate Black, Mrs. Jennifer Ronzio, Mr. Henry Samson, and Mr. Justin Dibb for planning such a special event.

Girls on the Run

Let the Alleluia Sound Again!

The Sacred Heart of Jesus was enthroned at St. Ambrose during the 8:00 a.m. Mass on Friday, April 26.  Our Pastor, Monsignor Vincent Bommarito celebrated the Mass and presided at the Enthronement.  In this multi-media presentation, Sister Katie Press explains this beautiful liturgy.  The piano music is by Gary Scott.  

Let the Alleluia Sound Again!

The Easter season is a time to move forward as the Apostles do in the early Christian community and bring God’s kingdom to all the world. In this year of faith we can renew our hopes and dreams to spread the WORD of God to all those we meet.

 Middle school students dramatize the stations of the cross. 

 Contact me at ckileyascj@gmail.com, or by phone at 314-772-1437, ext 114. 

Growing in Faith

8th Graders are confirmed.

photos by Judy Bozikis

Monsignor Mark Rivituso, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, confirmed the eighth grade class at St. Ambrose Church on Tuesday, April 9th.

 Abilities Awareness Day

photos by Debbie Hilderbrand

Lemonade Surprise

The School Group of the 8^th grade class treated parents and faculty to a glass of pink lemonade this morning as a random act of kindness.  St. Ambrose students have been concentrating on the virtue of kindness this year and as a continuation of the Confirmation service, the 8^th grade decided that they wanted to “treat” the parents as they were dropping off their children for school.  Everyone enjoyed the “surprise treat”.  Some even made a donation!  Thank you to the 8^th grade for their kind treats to begin the day

.                                

Our Lenten Journey

Growing in Virtue

Mrs. Kate Black’s 6th grade class works on a virtue project with Ms. Lynne Lang, author of Virtue Based Restorative Discipline.  See their story in this multi-media presentation narrated by students, Carolyn Sinak and Adam Menker.

BY LIVING VIRTUE WE LIVE LIKE JESUS!

“Return to me with your whole heart, for gracious and merciful is HE.” Joel 2:12

From the beginning of Lent to Easter we’re on a journey of the heart. …In French, the word for “heart” is “coeur, ” the root of our word, “Courage.” It takes COURAGE  to be kind and caring.  A simple Lenten practice would be that whenever we see or hear the word, “heart,” to remind ourselves and others in our family to:

Have courage! Have heart!   We are not alone on this journey alone.  Jesus walks with us.

We have been steeped in VIRTUE and the practice of virtue since we started our Virtue Program in August. When we talk about practices for lent—we have the virtues before us and the banners in our school halls that will visibly remind us of the virtues that we are trying to practice—kindness,  forgiveness,  compassion and patience. As a school community we can intensify our efforts to be virtuous each day.

LENT invites us to ask these questions

What do I need to give up in order to be kind? What do I need to give up in order to RECEIVE kindness ? What do I need to TAKE ON in order to be a kind person of greater love?

How can we practice forgiveness, patience and compassion?

All loving God, help us to become people of virtue  that you want us to be.

Give us clean hearts, but also open hearts… that we may see all the times we have to bring your kindness to those around us in the simplest of ways.

May we fast from unkindness, impatience and not forgiving. May this Lent be the acceptable time to feast on forgiveness, compassion and patience.  

Contact me at ckileyascj@gmail.com, or by phone at 314-772-1437, ext 114.

Awards for Saint Ambrose School

Saint Ambrose Wins Award from the FBI

As a surprise for the students this morning, March 12, an All School Assembly was held at 9AM in the gym.  Representatives from the St. Louis FBI were present to present Mrs. Debbie Hilderbrand and the 6^th and 7^th grade classes an award.  They participated in the FBI’s “Safe on Surfing” Campaign.  The 6^th and 7^th grade students logged on to the FBI-SOS website and completed several activities in which they learned components of Internet Safety.  At the completion of the activities, they took an online quiz.  Out of all of the schools that participated in the program for the month of January – the St. Ambrose Students scored the highest scores on the test!  Mrs. Hilderbrand was presented with a crystal globe trophy and the media (KSDK and KMOV) were present for the presentation.

Congratulations to the students of St. Ambrose on this wonderful accomplishment!

photos from FBI

More Awards

Art Award- “Picture the Music,” an art contest sponsored by the St. Louis Symphony Volunteer Association, is an annual event in which students listen to a selection of      symphonic music and then create their own artistic interpretations through their artwork.   Four of our students were recognized for their outstanding artwork at a special awards ceremony held at Powell Symphony Hall on February 28^th:

            Daniel Evans                 Grade 5            Maestro Award (the highest prize granted, this award is only presented to one student in the category of grades 4-6)

            Allison Ruggeri Grade 3            Blue Ribbon

            Anthony Torretta          Grade 4            Special Recognition

            Liliana Marcallini           Grade 2            Special Recognition

            This year more than 17,430 students from 104 schools participated in the contest. Of  these, more than 600 entries were submitted.

            We congratulate all of our winners and Mrs. JoAnn Dreas

            Bellarmine Speech- We are very proud of our speech team once again. We only had 3 students who were able to attend the meet at Sts. Joachim and Ann on Saturday.    Lily Kanagawa and Gabby Burk earned a Blue ribbon for their performance as a duet.   Hannah Loranger received a Blue ribbon for her Humorous performance.   Thanks to Kathy Mitchell for representing us a judge for the meet.