Lumen News – 11/17/2017

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Nov 21st:  National Honor Society Informational Meeting (9-12th Grade), 11:30am
• Nov 21st:  US Naval Academy Informational Visit, 1pm
• November 23rd & 24th:  No School, Thanksgiving Holiday
• Dec 8th:  Holy Day of Obligation (Feast of the Immaculate Conception)(Fri B w/Lent schedule)
• Dec 12th:  Advent Reconciliation Service
• Dec 19th, 20th, 21st:  Finals
• Dec 22nd-Jan 5th:  No School, Christmas Break
• Jan 8th:  Classes Resume
• Jan 15th:  No School, MLK Holiday
• Jan 29th-Feb 3rd:  Catholic Schools Week
• Jan 29th:  All Catholic School Mass at OLG, 10:30am
• Jan 29th:  2nd Annual State of the School Address, 7pm
• Feb 4th:  Lumen Christi/St. Benedict’s Community Mass, 10:30am
• Feb 10th:  Lumen Christi’s Mardi Gras Gala, 5:30pm

Principal’s Update:  For my update this week, I’d like to continue with reasons 46-50 why a Catholic school education is so important and then to briefly highlight one of our alumni who has built upon the strong foundation of her Lumen Christi education in the past 10 years.  So here we go…

46.  The freedom to talk about human dignity and a Creator who endowed each of us with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

47.  Moral and spiritual development based on Gospel values

48.  Being able to push back against society’s materialistic, image-centric distortions of reality

49.  Discovering what it means to live a “Christ-like” way of life each and every day

50.  Understanding that the heart of our school is Jesus, “the way, the truth, and the life”

We want to recognize Class of 2008 alum, Aurora “Rory” Blucher.  Aurora is a National Library of Medicine (NLM) Pre-doctoral Fellow in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon. After graduating from Lumen, she received her undergraduate degree in mathematics from University of Portland. According to the OHSU website, “for her dissertation work, Aurora is studying the extent of polypharmacology (or nonselective binding) displayed by currently approved drugs and using probabilistic graphical modeling techniques to explore the cellular pathway activity that results from such binding behavior. Her research interests also include adverse drug reaction prediction and drug repurposing, or finding alternate uses for existing or failed drugs.”  Whew!  I’m not sure what all that means, but we can certainly be proud of Aurora for all her hard work and commitment in the field of math and science after graduation!  Way to go, Aurora!

This week our students are busy collecting stuffing boxes and turkeys for those in need.  As we approach Thanksgiving next week, let us all be thankful for the many blessings we have in our school community, including Aurora and the over 200 graduates of Lumen who have lit a path to the future for the rest of us.  God bless you!

Annual Stuffing Drive:  Our stuffing ends Friday morning.  If you plan to donate, please be sure to bring your boxes in first thing in the morning.  Catholic Social Services is picking up the stuffing in the morning so if you bring it mid-day or at the end of the day, you will miss the pick up.  Help us reach our goal of 800 boxes.  Students who bring in 10 boxes will be granted a dress down day and the class with the most participation will win a prize.

Scrip:  Have you heard of Scrip fundraising yet?  This is a great way to help Lumen raise funds while you do your everyday shopping and gift giving.  Please see Mrs. Estes with any questions you may have.  In the meantime, visit shopwithscrip.com to learn more.  After visiting shopwithscrip.com and you’d like to set up your account, please call Mrs. Estes for Lumen Christi’s enrollment code.  Our next order deadline will be on Tuesday, November 21st at 3pm (We decided to extend our deadline to include the up-coming Thank-Scrip-ing promotion on the 21st).

Senior Memory Pages:  Senior Memory pages are due during the month of December.

• If you or your parents/you are making your own memory page, it will be due December 21st, 2017.

• If you plan on the Yearbook staff making your memory page, the photos for it are due December 1st, 2017.

If you do not have your memory pages submitted on time, they will not be featured in the yearbook. All submissions can be given digitally or hard-copy to Mrs. Spillers.

Calling All Photographers!:  Do you have any great pictures of your students playing sports or participating in extra-curricular activities? Although our Yearbook team tries to be at as many events as possible, we can’t be everywhere. Please send any pictures you have to Mrs. Spillers, so that we can try to include them in the yearbook. E-mail: mspillers@lumenchristiak.org

Schedule Change-Holy Day on December 8th:  The school will attend Mass on Friday, December 8th as it is a Holy Day of obligation.  We will adjust our school schedule as listed below:

• Thursday, December 7th:  We will follow a Monday bell schedule

• Friday, December 8th:  We will follow a Fri B Lent bell schedule so that we can attend Mass.  Dismissal is at 12:35pm.

PVO News:

Your time and talents are in high demand, thank you for sharing them with our school!

• http://signup.com/go/nnKSLte Mat-Su DAV Gun Show- Thanksgiving weekend is a right around the corner!  There are plenty of share hour opportunities!

• We are also looking for a future Lumen Representative/Point of Contact for the Mat-Su DAV Gun Shows: This person will open and run the concession stand for the Gun Shows in August and November (Thanksgiving weekend) and be the point of contact during the event.  Sign up this year to shadow the current coordinator and learn from her during the Thanksgiving weekend show.  Sign up online or contact PVO for more information- http://signup.com/go/nnKSLte

• http://signup.com/go/cVMeBzw Attic Fridays- Shifts we must fill to stay open:

  • December 8th 5-7pm Helper Shift

  • December 15th 4:45- 7pm Lead Shift

• Sign up for your favorite Gala job- http://signup.com/go/oZVcYYb

  • Procurement callers are needed!  Earn double share hours from home!!  Letters will be going out to businesses the week after Thanksgiving.  Calls will start soon after but most of the calling with be in January.  Sign up today!!

• Our next meeting is Tuesday, December 12th at 7 pm.  It’s Gala Meeting time!

If you have any questions, please contact Danielle (pvo@lumenchristiak.org).

Campus Ministry:

All are invited to join us for Mass at 7:15 a.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays in our new School Chapel! Pray for peace, act in peace.

• We are so proud of the following students who have formed a choir for our Thursday Masses!  Anika Beighle, Jaydin Dufrane, Jamie Estes, Halle faro, Nate Goodwin,  Wolfgang Goorchenko,  Karin Helgesen, Parker Klem, Kirstin Marshall, Luc Merril.

• St. Patrick Parish is in need of more turkeys for their baskets.  If any of you is so moved to provide a turkey, in addition to the stuffing, it will be greatly appreciated.  St. Patrick feeds 1600 + families each Thanksgiving in the East Anchorage area.  If you send in a frozen turkey we will store and  transport it to St. Patrick Church on Friday, Nov 17.

• Please pray for the victims of the First Baptist Church shootings in Texas

• Please pray for the victims of the NYC act of terror, and for peace.

• Please remember in your prayers Chief Warrant Officer Two Sims, of Juneau, and his family;  he passed away on October 28th in Logar Province, Afghanistan, when his helicopter crashed.

• We are forming teams for The Jingle Bell Run and The Polar Plunge. Students can find information on the bulletin board across from the main office. All family members and friends please come out and join our teams to raise money for The Special Olympics and the Arthritis Foundation.

• Sign up sheets for Friday service hours at The Archangel Attic can be found on the bulletin board across from the school office. Students please sign up!!

• All eligible students are invited to be trained as altar servers for our school Masses. Interested students please see Mrs. Loeffler.

• If you know of a worthy cause in need of volunteers let us know so we can get the word out!

• Our Parent Support Group begins next Sunday, November 26.

• Advent is around the corner! Interested in forming an Advent Prayer Study group?  Contact Mrs. Loeffler:  eloeffler@lumenchristiak.org