Sheldon, Iowa — This week, February 1st through 7th, is Catholic Schools Week and St. Patrick Catholic School in Sheldon is celebrating each day with a specific theme.
St. Patrick Principal Jessica Schmalen talks about Catholic Schools Week.
(As above) “Catholic Schools Week is a great time for us to celebrate our students, our faculty and all those other people that support us…our volunteers and all the people in the community that are a great asset to Catholic schools. And it’s just a great time for us to celebrate our faith and our religion.”
Schmalen says the COVID-19 pandemic has forced St. Patrick School to make some adjustments to the way they celebrate Catholic Schools Week this year.
(As above) “Catholic Schools Week does look a little different this week because of COVID, so we are trying to do all COVID-safe activities, and we’re trying to celebrate those that have really put forth a lot of effort during this time.”
She says there are specific daily themes for each day of Catholic Schools Week.
(As above) “The first day (Monday) we celebrate community. And so we’ve gone ahead and we’re making a little something special for all of those nurses that work in the hospital, and so we’re going to go ahead and give some gifts to them later on.”
Schmalen says Tuesday’s theme is, ‘Celebrating Volunteers,’ Wednesday the theme will be, ‘Celebrating Faith,’ with Thursday’s theme, ‘Celebrating Teachers.”
(As above) “We’re celebrating volunteers, so on Facebook we went ahead and had a Volunteer Appreciation Song, and then we also celebrate vocations, so priests and sisters. We celebrate our faith on Wednesday, so we’re all getting together to pray the Rosary. (On Thursday) We also celebrate our teachers, so we have lunch coming in for them and that’s a nice little celebration for them.”
She says they’ll wrap up Friday’s celebration with a fun activity for the students.
(As above) “Then on Friday we have our Mass, and we’ll be doing another Facebook Live after Mass and we’ll be singing some songs and we invite everyone to tune into that. In the afternoon we’re going to go sledding and snowshoeing.”
Mrs. Schmalen says the folks at St. Patrick are excited to celebrate Catholic Schools week and she says we’re blessed to have a small Catholic school here in Sheldon.
(As above) “I just think our school is amazing, our students are amazing and we’re just so blessed to be able to have a small Catholic school in this community. We just want to be able to celebrate it every day, but to be able to put a lot of emphasis on it for a week is great.”
For more on St Patrick Catholic School in Sheldon, visit their Facebook page.
