Chesterton Weekly 12/17/21
“Any one thinking of the Holy Child as born in December would mean by it exactly what we mean by it; that Christ is not merely a summer sun of the prosperous but a winter fire for the unfortunate.”
- G.K. Chesterton
In this issue:
Christmas Break
All Things Gala - note from Karen Nawas, our auction chair
6th and 7th Grade Open House
Limited-Time-Only Spirit Wear
Save the Date
Christmas Break
A bird’s eye view of our annual Advent Lessons and Carols.
Cheers to 2 weeks of Christmas break! Congratulations, students, on completing your first semester of the 2021-22 school year. Thank you to all our faculty and staff who worked so hard to make this semester a great success. Please note that the building will be closed until January 3rd (there will be a faculty/staff in-service that day). If you need to reach someone at school, feel free to call and leave a message or send them an email/PlusPortal message.
We hope all of our students are resting up today after such an amazing job at our annual Lessons and Carols. What an incredible and inspiring service. We hope you carry the peace and joy from last night into your last week of Advent. Have a happy, holy, and healthy Christmas and we will see students back again on Tuesday, January 4th! Please remember that school resumes on a Tuesday, here is to an extra day of break!
All Things Gala
The Gala is just two and a half months away! And once we get back from break, we’ll be two months away! Please take some time this Christmas break to consider helping us out! There are two specific ways we could use your help!
Buy a raffle ticket and have all of your friends and family buy one too. The prizes are well worth it! Click here to visit the raffle page. And you can also download and print additional flyers to help sell tickets using this PDF file.
Please take a moment to read a note from our auction chair, Karen Nawas.
Blessed Advent, Chesterton Parents,
For those of you whom I have not had the pleasure to meet yet, my name is Karen Nawas, mother of Michael class of 2022, and Alexander class of 2024, and part of the House of Athanasius!
My husband and I had the pleasure of being invited to the first Chesterton Gala by a work colleague. Our eldest child was in 6th grade at the time, not even thinking about high school.
We were so amazed by the joy of the students that evening, and the mission of the school. A lasting first impression, one that resonated with us as parents. Fast forward two years and our now 8th-grade son had a shadow day scheduled at the campus at First Presbyterian Church. By the end of that day his entire perspective and his expectations of high school were changed, and he knew Chesterton Academy is where he belonged. The Fleur-de-lis Gala is not just our only fundraiser of the year, but an opportunity to showcase our school and our students.
This event is very dear to my heart, as this one night has lasting effects. Not only are we able to keep tuition costs low through one event, which we all benefit from, but we are able to celebrate and watch everything the staff and students have worked toward come to fruition that evening. The essence of our community comes to life. We have all made the choice to bring our children to CATHF, we know it is good for our families and for their souls. Being a part of CATHF means we are a family, and our hearts lie in there. Our children are our greatest treasures and we have entrusted them to this community for education of soul and mind which means we must all bring our time, talent, and treasure to support the mission. This one event a year is the perfect opportunity to give back to our school in a variety of ways.We are a small committee of dedicated volunteers working on the auction portion of this event. But we can not do this alone, we need everyone's help. What we ask from all of our amazing families is that everyone contributes toward this effort. At this stage we need help in procuring donations for the auction. Don't be shy, let your love for this school show through and get out there and ask. No one can give or say yes if we don't give them the opportunity by asking. Print out some letters and intake forms, and we ask every family to try to reach out to at least 5 businesses, friends, colleagues, or family members to obtain items, experiences, tickets, etc for the auction. I know this is not comfortable for many, and believe it or not it wasn't comfortable for me a few years ago either. But when you love something and you really believe in it, it's not very difficult at all and that comes through your message. I invite you all (parents and students) to join a zoom call this Monday, December 20 at 10 a.m. for more details and strategies on how to ask and what the auction is still in need of. You can RSVP for that meeting here.
Please feel free to reach out directly to me if you have any questions or ideas. I would love to hear from you.
In Christ,
Karen Nawas
Open House - 6th and 7th Graders
Chesterton families! Tell all your friends and family with 6th or 7th graders to save the date for our upcoming Admissions Open House. It will be from 9am - 11am on January 12. We hope to see you there and look forward to meeting your family and friends!
Limited-Time-Only Spirit Wear
We are adding to our spirit wear collection with some awesome new gear! Checkout the winter popup shop and be sure to snag some Chesterton spirit wear to show your Chesterton pride at our sports games, various events, spirit wear days, and when you are just out and about!
The shop will close on December 27 so you can get all your Chesterton gear shortly after the new semester begins. That way, you are stocked up for second semester.
We have some great items always in stock as well. Be sure to check out our vinyl Saints stickers, our cozy Chesterton scarves, and more! You’ll want a Chesterton scarf to stay warm at the Chicago March for Life on January 8th! Find those items here!
Save the Date
1/4: All students return from the Christmas Break
1/8: March for Life Chicago
1/12: 6th & 7th Grade Open House
1/15: Chesterton Supper Club
1/17: Martin Luther King Day - no school
1/31 - 2/4: Holy Family Days
2/2: Winter Field Day