This week is our celebration of All Saints Day – our feast day. For many, the concept of saints is isolated to church history and heroes. The Holy Father asks us to look at this differently. Pope Francis said, “To be a saint is not a privilege for the few, but a vocation for everyone”. We can be saints to each other by simply living the life that God asks of us. Sounds so simple; yet in this chaotic world, it is so difficult.
Parent Conferences
The parent conference portal link http://www.signupgenius.com/findasignup will close today at 4 pm. If you need to schedule a conference appointment or if you need to make a change after this date/time, please contact Helen Kolar at hkolar@ascacademy.org.
Drop-In Baby-Sitting for the November 6th Conferences
Student Voices will be providing baby-sitting services for parents who are not able to reserve a baby-sitter during their children’s scheduled conferences on Thursday, November 6th from 9:00 am until 8:00 pm. We will be located in Cafeteria One across from the Main Office. Children will be able to watch a Disney Movie, play a game or be creative at the coloring center. Please note that there will not be services available on Friday, November 7.
Safe Touch Materials
In late November, our students will have the safe touch instruction in their health class. The materials that will be used will be available for parent preview during parent conferences. Please look for the table by the main office.
Save the Date -- MARCH 14, 2015 -- For All Saints’
10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY BENEFIT
At Bolingbrook Golf Club! Whether a founder or new to the school, come celebrate the past and present and be a part of securing the future. Within the last decade, our school has evolved and changed, but the commitment to providing an excellent Catholic education has remained constant. Since our first Dinner Dance Auction in 2005 through our most recent in 2014, all proceeds from the event have directly impacted our school’s ability to provide for the current and future needs of its students. Be a part of the continuing tradition! Look for more details regarding the Benefit in future newsletters and in your child’s backpack mail. Please direct any questions regarding the Benefit to Michelle Yacullo at yacullo@sbcglobal.net, or Tim Traynor at ttraynor@ascacademy.org.
Note: The next Dinner Dance Auction Committee meeting is Tuesday, November 4th at 8:15 am in the Teacher’s Lounge. Even if you missed the first committee meeting, if you would like to be involved in the Benefit planning, please join us!
Market Day, Wednesday, November 12th
Our next Market Day will be held Wednesday, November 12th with product pick-up from 2:30 - 3:30 pm in the gym (please enter through Door 9). As a reminder, at least 10% of your pre-tax order will be credited to your annual Family Fundraising Commitment. You are encouraged to place your order at http://www.marketday.com/, and pay by credit card. The deadline for internet orders is Saturday, November 8th at 11:00 pm. All Saints Catholic Academy's school code is 27119. Please note that Market Day and GFS purchases at local GFS stores are not a practical option for Family Fundraising purposes, because the credit to All Saints reduces from 10% or 15% to just 5%, and the reports we receive from Market Day do not identify the family to be credited. Volunteers are needed to help sort and stack the food. Please contact Tracy Coleman at tracytroy@aol.com if you are able to help.
Innisbrook Giftwrap Pick-up Tuesday and Wednesday, November 4 and 5
Families who have placed Innisbrook giftwrap and gift orders are requested to pick up their orders in McSherry Hall at pick-up on Tuesday afternoon, November 4th from 2:30 to 3:30 pm at Door 9, and on Wednesday morning, November 5th after mass at Door 8, from 9:45 to 10:15 am. Because music instruction is being given in McSherry at these times, you may be asked to wait at the doorway to McSherry while a volunteer gets your package for you. Please contact Theresa Cunningham at tacunningham@comcast.net or Susan Glab at ks4glab@yahoo.com if you have questions. Thank you for your support!
Report Card Envelopes
If you have not already returned your student’s signed report card envelope, please send it back to school at this time. You may retain your student’s report card.
Lunchroom Concern
Halloween is coming up, and with that comes Halloween candy. Please remember to provide a wipe in your student’s lunch box if they are eating any type of Halloween candy to protect their fellow students who suffer from food allergies. Even though nuts may not be an ingredient in the candy itself, it may have been processed in a plant where nuts are present. Thank you for helping keep our students safe.
Save the Date for Photos with Santa at ASCA 
Santa Claus is coming to town, and he will be stopping at ASCA! Don’t miss the opportunity for photos and fun on Saturday, December 13th from 8 – 11am. Bring your ho-ho-whole family to have a picture taken with Santa. Mark your calendar and be on the lookout for more information to come. This event is sponsored by SHPP.
A Message from the CORe: Starting off on the Right Foot
In the interest of enhancing a Culture Of Respect (CORe) at our school, our CORe collaborative group, comprised of parents, teachers, and staff, created the RICH in CORe Values Pledge. The acronym RICH represents our values of Respect, Integrity, Compassion and Humility. The Pledge was introduced to all students in August, and they were asked to sign in agreement. Parents and teachers were also asked to read, reflect and sign around the time of Curriculum Night.
This pledge was just the first step toward improvement. The CORe group has set out to work toward weaving these values into every fiber of our culture, from frequent “kindness” reminders and ongoing “good manners” education, to affirming positive behaviors while respectfully deterring the negative. We’re thankful for the participation and feedback from those involved; so many great ideas have been offered! Now we just need to work steadily and patiently toward execution of our goals.
Some other items with which we’ve been involved include redefining Study Habits into Respectful Reminders, and putting more definition into Saintly Acts. Rollout of these changes is planned for January. We plan to post monthly updates on the group’s progress and projects.
The CORe initiative does not yet have a logo, but in the upcoming months we’ll be looking to students for input in this! Stay tuned for information about the logo design contest which will be launched to our grade 5-8 students. Children in the lower grades will also have the opportunity to express, through art, their thoughts on what it means to be RICH in CORe Values, probably early next year.
What can you, as parents, do to support our efforts?
• For starters, please review the pledge with your child(ren) every so often. It’s always good to be reminded of what the CORe of our actions should be and parental support is so important. The pledge can be found here: http://www.ascacademy.org/Portals/0/RICH%20in%20CORe%20Values%20Pledge%20doc%20MASTER.pdf
• We all sign many pieces of paper during spring registration and fall back-to-school season; we’re only human to forget some of what we read. How about posting the Values Pledge somewhere in your home as a continuous reminder?
• Also, have you read “Raising Respectful Children in a Disrespectful World” by Jill Rigby? This book is available on Amazon and is worth a good read.
• If you’re interested in becoming involved in CORe, please contact: Maureen Juhas at mjuhas66@gmail.com, or Vicki Perry at vicki.perry@rocketmail.com. The more parent advocacy we have, the better our chances of success, so get involved!
Thanks for all you do to support a respectful culture at ASCA, and look for more updates from us in future newsletters! Let’s get to the CORe!!
The Role of Diversity and Fraternity in Our Church and Our School----------------------
In our All Saints school community, in our parishes, across our country, and in the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, we increasingly are called to accept and to preach the importance of diversity and of fraternity, of acceptance and appreciation for all humans who are our brothers and our sisters. In our lifetime, we have had no finer spokesperson for fraternity guided by faith and the Holy Spirit than Pope Francis, as evidenced by his profound message at his first World Day of Peace, January 1, 2014. It will help to reflect on these quotes.
“In the heart of every man and woman is the desire for a full life, including that irrepressible longing for fraternity which draws us to fellowship with others and enables us to see them not as enemies or rivals, but as brothers and sisters to be accepted and embraced.
“We should remember that fraternity is generally first learned in the family, thanks above all to the responsible and complementary roles of each of its members, particularly the father and the mother. The family is the wellspring of all fraternity, and as such it is the foundation and the first pathway to peace, since, by its vocation, it is meant to spread its love to the world around it.”
The Pope offers us fraternity as no less than the foundation and pathway to peace, a prerequisite for fighting poverty, the key to economic justice in the world and the means to extinguish wars.
While fraternity begins with your families at home, it moves quickly and naturally to our school family which has the next responsibility and opportunity for engendering faith and spirituality in our children. At All Saints, we have been blessed since our earliest days with an awareness of our sacred calling to fraternity, to acceptance and celebration of our diversity. As a community, we are greatly blessed!
School Board
The approved minutes from the September, 2014 school board meeting can be found at the school website. For more information about the ASCA school board, please go to http://www.ascacademy.org/SupportOurSchool/SchoolBoardMeetings/tabid/119/Default.aspx.
Save the Date
Please save the date for the following upcoming SHPP events. See also the minutes from the October SHPP meeting. Additional details may be found in the SHPP section of the ASCA website at http://www.ascacademy.org/SHPP/tabid/207/Default.aspx and/or will be communicated shortly:
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Teacher Luncheon during conferences - Thursday, Nov. 6th
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Feed My Starving Children - Friday, November 7th, 12-2 pm
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SHPP November meeting - Friday, November 14th at 8:15 am (NEW DATE/TIME)
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SHPP Cookies for Teachers - Wednesday, December 10th
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SHPP December meeting - Wednesday, December 10th
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Christmas Caroling at Spring Meadows – Wednesday, December 10th
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Pictures with Santa - Saturday, December 13th
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SHPP sponsored Teacher Christmas Party at Meson Sabika - Wednesday, Dec. 17th
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Classroom Christmas parties - Friday, December 19th, 2:30-3:15 pm
Community Outreach
ASCA Feed My Starving Children Packing Session Friday, November 7th
Conferences for teachers, service for us! No school on November 7th – come serve instead. To register your family for this 12:00–2:00 pm session, follow the instructions below: Visit http://volunteer.fmsc.org/Register/Default.aspx. Select JOIN a Group. Enter Join Code 504996 and click Search. Agree to volunteer guidelines and click Confirm. Log in or Create a New Account. Once you have entered your information you can click Add Member Names to add your children. Feed My Starving Children packaging sessions are held at 555 Exchange Court, Aurora, IL 60504. Children in grades 3 and up are welcome to participate. Space is limited so register today! Please contact Ann Zediker at jazediker@comcast.net with any questions.
ASCA Book Drive for October
Did you know the most successful way to improve the reading achievement of low income children is to increase their access to print? ASCA is hosting a book drive to benefit Catholic Charities’ Foster Grandparent Program through this coming Friday, October 31. This program allows seniors to volunteer in the Head Start Preschool and Kindergarten classrooms and read to children from very low income families. There is a desperate need for new or gently used picture books, early readers, books in Spanish and other age appropriate books. The greatest demand is for Spanish books. There are over 800 kids in the program and it would be awesome if ASCA could provide each of these children with a book for Christmas as we did last year! We can also accept adult paperback books which will be given to the low income senior volunteers. Please bring in any donations to the ASCA office. If you have a large donation, or any questions, please contact Erika Baka at jnebaka@gmail.com.
Wednesday Morning Rosary Reminder
Please join us in praying the Rosary in the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Reflection Chapel (located across from the school gym) at 7:50 am before Wednesday school mass.
Instruction sheets and extra Rosaries are always available. Kids (even noisy ones) are welcome! So, we look forward to you joining us each Wednesday morning. Please contact Darlene Newman at newmdar@gmail.com with any questions.
Adult Formation at St. Elizabeth Seton
Dave Specia, Director of Lay Formation for the Diocese of Joliet, will be presenting a formation opportunity entitled: Prayer in the Christian Life on Wednesday, October 29 from 7 – 9 am at St. Elizabeth Seton, 2220 Lisson Road, Naperville. All are welcome. The talk will take place in Room 8, and two hours of catechist formation will be earned by all those in attendance. To register, please contact Peggy Idstein at peggy.idstein@sbcglobal.net, or Sheila Stevenson at sesyouthministry@gmail.com.
News from All Saints Athletic Association
Volleyball Playoffs
This coming weekend, our teams will begin their playoff journeys. Remember that all team standings and games can be found at http://www.dplvba.org/.
Skate Into Some Fun!
The ASAA Boosters Club will host its annual roller skating party on Wednesday, November 5th from 6:00 – 8:00 pm at the Aurora 
Skate Center. Invite all of your friends, family and neighbors for a great evening. There is NO SCHOOL the next day…so come out and have some fun with your friends! Discounted tickets can be purchased in advance before October 29th. The Roller Skating Form is going home to all oldest and only students today, and can also be found at the school website. Contact Debbie Kosmach with questions at nolkos@aol.com.
GO SAINTS!!