Important Dates
 

CHECK OUT LOST & FOUND in school Entry --- Items will be donated on 10/6

9/28 - 10/5 - Fall Festival Donations requested.  See attachment
9/29 -  Rosary for our teachers, 2:30 in Mary garden
10/2 - *** New Date *** Picture Retake Day
10/4 - Relics of St. Jude at SMG / E-learning Day / Parent-Teacher Conferences.  Please check your email for a note from 9/18 with signup schedule from your teacher.
10/5 - Lions Club Eye Exams for Grades 1, 3, 5, 8 and transfer students.
10/5 - SPIRIT DAY- Students may dress down in SMG tshirt/sweatshirt and school appropiate bottoms.  No tears/ripped clothing, no tank tops or spagetti straps.
10/5 Panera Dine to Donate
10/7 Fall Fest 5:30-8:30
10/10 - Art Camp after school with Mrs. Dan & Mrs. Dirlam (see attached)
10/11 Evereve shopping fundraiser
10/11 - All School Rosary lead by Mrs. Lindley's class
10/14 - Art Camp on Saturday with Mrs. Dan & Mrs. Dirlam (see attached)

Future Planning


Please note the following e-learning dates for students.  School will not be open on these dates for students. 
10/4 - St Jude Relics at SMG and Teacher-Parent Conferences
10/26 - Staff Professional Development Day

Prearranged Absences
If you student is going to be absent for High School shadow day, vacation, sport event etc. please fill out Prearranged Absence form before date.  Turn form into office staff or email it to Mrs Newkirk at [email protected]. Form can be found On the School website under

Student Resources-PreArranged Absence

School Calendar is available on the Website and App.  You can add the calendar to your own Google Calendars, by clicking the + on bottom right of calendar.  This will give you the most up to date information, and you can view by month, week, day.  You can also print calendar if you would like it in paper form.  The new 2023-2024 School Calendar that was sent out over break is attached below as well.

Click the button to get started:  School Calendar

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Helpful Articles
Transitions-Divorce Support for Children - Support Group for Children of Divorce

GriefShare-Bereavement Group  - Grief support Group

Beyond Anxiety-How to help your Teen (pre-teen) get beyond their anxiety
10/22 Worksession - Strategies for reducing the risk and impact of anxiety in your child's life

We hope that everyone’s school year is off to a great start! 

Now that we are back in the swing of things, it is important to reflect on what we are called to do as families in a Stewardship based model Catholic Education.  This week we would like to highlight the Catholic Ministries Appeal or CMA (formerly called Fruitful Harvest).

We are called as families to participate in the CMA as one of the Four Pillars of stewardship.  Currently, only 26% of our school families have  contributed to the 2023 Appeal. 

Please prayerfully consider making your gift today.  Click HERE  to direct you to the Diocese website for the CMA.  Choosing the option to make a sustained gift is preferred as you will not have to enter this information next year when the campaign restarts.  

The purpose of the CMA: 

When you donate to the Catholic Ministries Appeal, you are helping pay for the formation of seminarians, assisting with health insurance & living expenses for retired priests and college ministries programs at local colleges such as Ball State & Purdue.  Additionally, resources are provided to parishes, schools and the central office for Technology including hardware, software, network & cloud abilities. 

Thank you to each and every family for your continued support of SMG’s stewardship model…it takes all of us!

Vision Screens. - Thursday, Oct. 5 we will have vision screens through the Lions Club for 1st, 3rd, 5th 8th grade and transfer students. An eye doctor will “reexamine” students with questionable results on a later date.  Please remind your student to bring their glasses to school for testing. If you suspect your student is struggling with close or far vision and they are NOT in 1 of these classes, please email the nurses and we will add your student to our testing list.  After testing 200+ students, parents will ONLY be notified, if further testing or vision correction is recommended. Questions?? nurse@smgonline.org 

St Maria Goretti birthday cookie treat: On Friday October 13 all students will be offered a decorated, nut free sugar cookie at lunch time to celebrate St. Maria Goretti’s birthday.  The ingredients are listed below. If your student cannot or chooses not to eat the cookie treat, please send in a different special treat for your student. The nurse office will have popsicles available for lactose intolerant students who forget to bring their treat.

Frosted sugar Cookie ingredients:  Sugar, Enriched Bleached Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Margarine (Palm Oil, Water, Soybean Oil, Salt, Contains 2% Or Less Of: Mono- And Diglycerides, Calcium Disodium EDTA [Preservative], Artificial Flavor, Annatto [Color], Vitamin A Palmitate), Eggs, nonfat milk, soy lecithin, dextrin, sunflower lecithin, colors red 3, blue 1,yellow  CONTAINS:  egg, milk, soy, wheat.  Manufactured in a peanut and tree-nut free facility. 

Immunization notice for 5th grade parents:  

11 year olds entering 6th grade in Indiana are  required to receive the meningitis vaccine, and an updated tetanus/pertussis vaccine known as “Tdap”  . The “tetanus booster” cannot be received until after the 10th or 11th birthday (depending on the drug manufacturer). This vaccine has dramatically lowered the number of pertussis cases in middle school and high school students in Indiana. The meningitis vaccine has reduced incidents of this serious disease in our adolescent and young adult group. Make sure all vaccines are received before entering 6th grade.  For Questions regarding the above, call the nurse’s office @ (317) 896-5582 ext 1204.

Please see the attached CDC information sheets for more detailed  information for preteen recommended immunizations. 

COVID-19 Guidance for 2023-2024
If your student tests positive, stay home and isolate at least 5 days or longer until symptoms are resolving, and the individual is fever free for at least 24 hours. 
Returning students may choose to wear a mask days 6-10. 
COVID may have a large impact on people other than you, so do the right thing and stay home if you are ill. 

This Saturday 9/30 from 10am-12pm, St. Maria Goretti will host Indiana Center for Prevention of Youth Abuse and Suicide for a "Gatekeeper" training event known as QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer).  It is a evidence-based suicide prevention training that teaches adults how to recognize possible warning signs of suicide and connect someone who might be struggling to the support theiy need. It is a free event to all local community members, but registration is appreciated. 

SMG Mentor Families Needed
Do you have a few extra minutes to connect with a new SMG family?  If so, please consider being a mentor family.  In this role, your family would be partnered with a new family in our parish.  You would simply reach out to your new family, answer any questions they may have, and make them feel welcome.  Serving as a mentor family would count toward your FISH service hours.  Please contact Katie Schemanske at [email protected] if you are interested.

Men’s Christ Renews His Parish Weekend - October 7 & 8

Hi SMG School Dads!
Now that we are back into the school year routine, how about taking a weekend for yourself; to connect with other men at SMG and renew yourself and your faith life? If you are on the fence, when you are at school pick up or at one of your kids sporting events, ask other dads.  Those who have attended will tell you it was a great experience.  If they haven’t attended, consider signing up together.  There is still space on the upcoming Men’s Christ Renews His Parish weekend, October 7 & 8. There is NO cost to attend the retreat, and registration is easy via the link: https://smgonline.org/crhp.
There will always be a reason why “now is not the time,” but I assure you there is no time like right now. 

Please consider joining us for this awesome weekend.

Your Brothers in Christ,
Gaby Alejando (Children in 8^th and 5^th grade at SMG)
Mark Dreiband (Children in 6^th and 3^rd grade at SMG)
Paul Kobylarz (Children in 6^th and 4^th grade at SMG)
Jason LaPaglia (Children in 3^rd, 2^nd and Pre-K 4 at SMG)

CRHP Men's Team 43

Hamilton County Kids Coats Coat Collection

SportsWear available NOW!---  MyLogoShop

WINTER SPORTS REGISTRATIONS ARE OPEN!!

Winter Sports:
CYO Boys Basketball (4 th -8 th ): REGISTRATION CLOSES 10/1
CYO HS Basketball (9 th -12 th ): REGISTRATION CLOSES 10/12
CYO Girls Basketball (4 th -8 th ): REGISTRATION CLOSES 12/1
CYO (5 th -8 th ) & In-House (K-4 th ) Wrestling: REGISTRATION CLOSES 1/8
In-House Boys & Girls Basketball (1 st -3 rd ): REGISTRATION CLOSES 1/12
In-House Coed Little Angels Basketball (PK-K): REGISTRATION CLOSES 1/12

Sponsorship opportunity:

Based upon interest from parishioners regarding sponsorship opportunities within the sports ministry, we are excited to share that parishioners of SMG are now able to sponsor our in-house sports teams. We will structure the sponsorship program based upon the interest but there is limited availability. Please reach out to Sean Bird ([email protected]) for additional information.


    
(also see Attachment)

  I hope your year has gotten off to a great start now that many of us have almost a month (!!) of classes completed already!  We’ve actually moved into an entirely new building at the ICC, so our year certainly started off big!

We still have our beginning choirs located in Carmel at Cornerstone Lutheran Church, but now we also have the ability to offer families our intermediate and advanced choirs at a more convenient location for those in Hamilton County than when we were at Butler.
(see Attachments)

COMMUNITY HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL

Come in costume if you want and enjoy games, treats, hayrides and more at the annual Community Halloween Carnival on Tuesday, October 3, 2023!  The Halloween carnival will be held at the Hamilton County 4-H Fairgrounds, 2003 Pleasant Street, Noblesville, from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.  Join us for this fun family activity offered at no charge.  Youth ages 10 and under should be accompanied by an adult and are encouraged to come in costume to enjoy games, prizes, candy, refreshments, a HAUNTED house, and a hayride.  Hayrides begin at 6:00 p.m. 

The evening is organized and sponsored by the Hamilton County 4-H Junior Leaders.  For more information, please contact us at 317-776-0854 or visit www.extension.purdue.edu/county/hamilton.