Welcome to the 8th
grade Marathon Web Page
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This
really is the longest web page I have ever created, but all of the following
information is very relevant to 8th graders. If you’d like to know
what your son or daughter has to do to prepare for Confirmation, then this is
the place for you. Please read on. One
of the major undertakings in the 8th grade is to prepare students
for the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Core content is taken in class, including a review and a more in-depth
study of our basic Catholic beliefs.
In addition to this, students are encouraged to think beyond
themselves and look for ways to serve others—something every one of us is
called do as Church.
The
following information is a listing of the Confirmation requirements as well
as a description of the work to be completed prior to the night of
Confirmation. All 8th
graders have handouts with the following information, and all of it was
explained and discussed at length in class. The initial information is a
general list of the requirements, while the subsequent information provides a
description of the service projects and the required work related to them.
Confirmation Requirements Enrollment MassParent/Candidate
Meeting Sponsor/Candidate Meeting Retreat Five Service projects
in the following categories: 1. Family Service 2.
School Service
3. Parish Service 4. Community Service 5. World Outreach/Service Other
requirements include the following:
·
A Tri-fold board and
journal papers about the service projects chosen
·
Class assignments on Confirmation topics (to be kept in the folder
given to each student) ·
Test on the basic Catholic beliefs (scoring a minimum of an 85%
mastery level) Descriptions of each type of
service Family
Service
Choose a project that would be outside your normal experience. For example, if you baby-sit younger
siblings often, choose another way to do family service. After making your selection, see your
homeroom teacher for project approval and signature, and then get a parent
signature on your contract. School Service Choose a project that directly benefits
life at school like working for teachers or staff members, or doing any
volunteer work outside of the normal class time. Working Kidsfest fits this category, too.
See your homeroom teacher for project
approval and a signature before beginning your project. Parish Service
Choose a project that helps the parish
to which you belong. For example,
working Oktoberfest would count if you belong to St. Henry’s, babysitting for
a parish event like the blood drive, or stuffing envelopes or answering phones
for the parish office, etc. would work for this category. See your homeroom teacher for project
approval and a signature before beginning your project. Community Service Choose a project that helps others in the community. For example, visiting nursing homes, raking leaves or doing other yard work for neighbors, or shoveling snow for neighbors—all on a regular basis, would qualify as projects.
See your homeroom teacher for project
approval and signature before beginning your service. World Outreach/Service Background
Information: This year we are adopting a school named
Euclides Barragan, located in a
little village called Campoalegre in Colima, South America. Campoalegre was once a prosperous coffee growing
region. Individual families had small
tracts of land on which they would grow coffee plants. Though making little money for their
efforts, the land was well suited for growing coffee. Due to an imported pest that killed the
plants, it’s now an area whose economy has been very depressed for a number
of years. For this reason, people of
all ages live in poverty. What’s
worse is that Campoalegre is surrounded by rival forces of guerillas known as
Paramilitares or Helenos, and FARC.
These guerillas, along with other smaller groups, are all known for
their violence, killings, and kidnappings.
Ordinary villagers are caught in the middle. Many even believe that the “imported
pest”, which destroyed the coffee plants, was an intentional act by
these rival forces that wanted the land for growing coca leaves. By destroying the main cash crop of the
region, people might be forced to grow coca leaves in order to make some sort
of living. To make matters even more
difficult, guerillas entice kids ages 13-15 to join them, offering a way out
of their poverty and harsh conditions at home, yet leading them to a life of
crime. In spite of this, people try
to cope. We heard about this situation
from Mrs. Gallagher, our Spanish teacher, who has friends and family living not
far from this village. According to
her, teachers find it difficult to supply their students with basics like
pencils and scissors, supplies that aren’t even produced in Colima. Imported supplies are incredibly
expensive, too, adding to the burdens of those living in poverty. Our goal is to make it easier for the
students and teachers at Euclides Barragan to have what they need for school by doing acts of service. |
Here’s what we’d like to do to help: As a class, we’ll come up with ways to generate funds, like
babysitting, cutting grass for someone, making and selling something others
would buy (bags of popcorn at recess, for example), etc. We’d then donate any proceeds to our
mission outreach. Every penny raised
will go directly to the students and teachers at Euclides Barragan. This will make it possible to equip
students with much needed school supplies. Anything we do will make a
difference, and together we can make a difference that’s absolutely amazing!
In Summary:
Our mission project is a team effort to reach out to our South
American neighbors. It’s also an
opportunity to put God’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself” into
action. We’ll even keep in touch with
one of the teachers at the school and a couple of other people who will be
our liaisons in our world outreach project.
We will hear and see directly how we’ve helped our adopted friends in
Campoalegre. Any visitors
to this web page who’d like to contribute to our mission project are welcome
to do so. Just call the school office
and ask for either Ms. Hartman or Mrs. Neltner and we’ll provide the
details. Thank You!! Additional Service Project
Requirements For each type of service project
completed, provide the following information on separate sheets of paper (one
for each project):
Then answer the
following questions about your experiences.
Create a
tri-fold board about your service projects. Include the
following:
Work for
visual appeal:
These boards will be on display
during the reception with the bishop, parents, and other guests the night of
Confirmation. This
is quite a lot of information to place on a web page at once, but all of this
is important to our Confirmation preparation. Again, students have until May to complete the work, but
ongoing attention to the projects throughout the year is necessary in order
to finish everything without a mad rush at the end. If you have any questions that your son or daughter can’t
answer, please contact either Mrs. Neltner or myself for any additional
information. Sincerely, Ms. Hartman |
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