by News 0 comments

Lumen News – December 6, 2018

Important Upcoming Dates:

Dec 10-14: Secret Santa
Dec 11th: All-School Advent Reconciliation Service, 9:30am
Dec 13th: All School Mass, 9am
Dec 14th: 9th Grade Retreat
Dec 15th: Special Olympics Polar Plunge
Dec 15th: Archdiocese Junior High Fun Day (details below)
Dec 18-20th: Final Exams (see schedule below)
Dec 20-22 HS Lumen Basketball Tournament
Dec 21: Christmas Break Begins
Dec 22: “A Christmas Carol” at SEAS (details below)

Principal’s Update:

We live in interesting and exciting times! I feel confident that we have tried to communicate with you as much as possible over the past week after the earthquake on the 30th. I do not have much to update you on other than it is good to have our students back in school. The earthquake (and the daily aftershocks–enough already!) did not diminish the laughter, smiles, and cheer in the classrooms, library, and the hallway. It is a blessing to start each day in Advent prayer together in the front foyer and hang ornaments on our Jesse Tree. And it is good that we are approaching the end of the semester, finals, and a well-deserved Christmas break.

As most of you know already, the Jingle Bell Run scheduled for Dec 8th has been cancelled, so we will not be meeting up at the UAA Student Union on Saturday. This is unfortunate, but I am pleased to report that we are the #3 top fundraising team with a total of $515 raised to support the Arthritis Foundation! Thank you for all your support and we will turn our attention on the Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge scheduled for Dec 15th. We hope you can join us at Goose Lake!

Finally, as you will see below, our personal note writing campaign by students for the LUMEN-ary Drive is meeting with great success. Thank you to all the parents who have sent in addresses of friends and family and encouraged your son or daughter to write a personal notecard. Thank you to the students who have written these notes. This past two weeks, we received two $1000 checks and several $50-250 ones from loved ones–touched by the personal note of our students–to support Catholic education at our school! That is awesome! We hope you will continue to prayerfully consider your own donation to the LUMEN-ary Drive and solicit others to do the same! Thank you!

LUMEN-ary Drive:

LUMEN-ary Drive Update: Good news! We are more than half-way to our goal of $40,000! As of Wednesday, Nov. 29th, we have cash-in-the-door of $22,645. Thank you to all who have supported this important campaign to date. Please remember that a successful LUMEN-ary Drive is critical to our school’s financial stability. Since we did not sell “Gold Cards” this year we’re asking each school family to voluntarily cooperate in raising at least $500 to help balance the school’s budget. While you are not obligated to pay this additional amount, our hope is that you will ask extended family and friends to support Lumen Christi’s mission of offering a “rigorous Catholic education in a Christlike environment.” One of the ways to encourage greater participation in the LUMEN-ary Drive is to have your son/daughter send out a personal note to extended family and friends along with LUMEN-ary Drive information. National ‘best practices” show that extended family members and friends are excited to help support the mission of Catholic education. To date, 31 families have sent a total of 55 personal notecards through the school, and recipients of these personal notecards have responded with a total of $3,650. It’s working! Let’s work together to achieve our goal of raising the $40,000 by Christmas! Thank you!

Campus Ministry:

Jingle Bell Run – CANCELLED! Thanks to all who signed up to run, we’ll see you next year.
Our 9th grade Service Retreat is planned for next Friday, December 14 from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. We will meet in the Library after morning prayer. Morning sessions conclude at 11:30 for lunch and we leave for Brother Francis Shelter at noon. Students will be back on campus at 2:30.
It’s not too late – please join our team and take the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics! Our jump time is 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 15. To register go to: https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/TeamFundraisingPage.aspx…and sign up under the team “Families of the Knights”
January 18th we will be having an evening of prayer and fellowship, and food for teens and parents! Please mark your calendars. Further information to come.

We have Mass on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 7:15am in our Archangel Chapel, and each Thursday at 9am at St. Benedict Church. Please join us!

Upcoming Events:

Youth Night is held at St. Benedict Church each Wednesday – all high school Lumen students are welcome! Several Theology teachers offer extra credit for Faith events attended outside of school hours. Students can check with teachers.

Prayer Spot:

Please remember the following in your prayers this week:

- All first responders
- All those recovering from last week’s earthquake
- The families and communities affected by violence
Any prayer requests that families would like listed here in Lumen News and also in the Lumen Prayer Book of Intentions may be sent directly to Mrs. Loeffler.

Archangel Sports Update:

The Lumen High School basketball teams will be hosting the Lumen Invitational Tournament on December 18 – 20. As noted above, we sustained damage to the gym floor so the location is still to be determined. Watch this space in Lumen News for updates! We’re also looking for space so that we can complete our Middle School Tournament. Stay tuned.

School Announcements:

Finals Week

Finals week (December 17-20) will be here before we know it. The schedule for that week will be: Monday – Normal Schedule, 7:45-2:30p.

Tuesday – Finals in Periods 1 & 2 with early dismissal at 11:15a.

Wednesday – Finals in Periods 3 & 4 with early dismissal at 11:15a.

Thursday – Finals in Periods 5 & 6 with early dismissal at 11:15a.

Friday – No school!

In keeping with tradition, we’ll be requesting donations of healthy snacks that students can enjoy during a short break between finals each day. Be on the lookout for a message from SignUp.com about that!

Jr. High Fun Day

The Archdiocese of Anchorage is sponsoring a Jr. High Fun Day on Saturday, December 15th at the Dimond Mall. This 9a-5p event will include ice skating, bowling AND a movie!

Class of 2019 Senior Memory Pages

Now that your Senior Portraits have been submitted, it’s time to get working on your Senior Memory Page. Please adhere to the following due dates:

If you and your family opted to create your own Senior Memory Page, it is due Tuesday January 22nd. This must be a digital file that is submitted to Mrs. Spillers. Price is $100.00. If you have yet to pay, please do so at the front office.
If you have chosen to have the Yearbook Staff create your Senior Memory Page, photos for your page are due Monday December 17th. These photos must be in digital format and submitted to Mrs. Spillers. Price is $150.00. If you have yet to pay, please do so at the front office.

Calling All Photographers!

If you have pictures of your student participating in any sports, clubs, or Lumen-affiliated activities, please send them to Mrs. Spillers (mspillers@lumenchristiak.org) so that we can include them in our 2018-2019 Yearbook. Thank you!

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens’ classic Christmas ghost story will be presented over at our sister school St. Elizabeth Ann Seton at 2p on Saturday, December 22nd. Recommended for ages 13 and older, tickets for the show are $15 and are available for purchase in both the St. Elizabeth and Lumen front offices.

Be a Santa to a Senior

No, not the senior class, but the seniors in our community! Each year there are many elderly residents in our community for whom the holidays pass without a visit from anyone, let alone a gift. The “Be a Santa to a Senior” organization seeks to change that and would like our help. Simply stop by either of the locations below and pull an “ornament of need” off of the tree. Purchase the gift and return it (unwrapped) by December 10th to the tree where you pulled the ornament from. For more information, visit BeaSantatoaSenior.com or call 907-277-4663. Thank you for going the extra mile for someone in need, in our community.

Tree locations:

• Home Instead Senior Care 440 W. Benson Blvd.

• Dr. John D. Frost, Lake Otis Medical Plaza 4100 Suite #302