St. Bede Students Care with Community Christmas Project

Mrs. Tynan’s sixth grade class from Montgomery Catholic's St. Bede Campus chose to purchase and deliver Christmas plants to a local nursing home for their Community Christmas project. Trey Magdon, Tucker Wilkinson, Drew Tolar and Will Thacker visited Crowne Health Care of Montgomery on December 17th to spread cheer and good tidings to over 20 nursing home residents. The students and residents had a wonderful time sharing good will with each other.

Saintly Students at Montgomery Catholic

Sixth grade students at Montgomery Catholic's St. Bede Campus dressed as their favorite saint for their Saint Reports in Religion class, which they presented in front of the entire school. From left to right: Justin Cotter, Grace Selvaggi, Ashley Kim, Jennifer Tyner, Delohn Wyatt, Carol Edwards, Joseph Thrash, Mary Janet McLaughlin, Sean Federspill, Aliceann Harper, and Sarah Hunkins.

Montgomery Catholic Raises Money for Arthritis

As part of our community outreach, Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School participated in the 19th annual Jingle Bell Run for the Arthritis Foundation at Huntingdon College on December 5th, raising over $2,000 for the cause.

Montgomery Catholic's team left their mark on the event. Eighth grader Gregory Hunkins won 1st place in his age group. Montgomery Catholic Senior Brianna McClure won 3rd place for her age group. Montgomery Catholic's team of 40 runners and walkers was the 5th top fundraising team out of over 60 teams. Laurie Gulley, Vice Principal of the St. Bede Campus, was the 5th top fundraising individual out of 1,300 participants.

Many thanks to all of the Montgomery Catholic team members for their dedication to such a worthy cause. They were Roscoe Anderson, David Been, Elizabeth Been, Justin Castanza, Anne Ceasar, Shannon Cheney, Tricia Crowley, Joe Crowley, Susan Duke, Megan Foran, Rachel Forsyth, Aidan Gilbert, Alexandra Gilbert, Cam Gilbert, Laurie Gulley, Lynn Higgins, Steven Higgins, Jacob Hudson, Meghan Hudson, Christine Hunkins, Gregory Hunkins, Mark Hunkins, Thad Hunkins, Faith Johnston, Melynda Keating, Mary Kelley, Allie Manzari, Dan Manzari, Ellen Manzari, Nick Manzari, AJ Mayhan, Brianna McClure, Bryan McClure, Chris Phillips, Debbie Redden, Michael Stewart, Jerry Taff, Jessica Taff, Fran Taylor, John Terino, and Lizzie Terino.

To view photos from the event, click here: http://family.webshots.com/album/569269436tCMLsc

The Polar Express Stops at St. Bede

The Polar Express made a special stop by the Kindergarten classes at Montgomery Catholic's St. Bede Campus just in time for Christmas. All three Kindergarten classes wore pajamas, drank hot chocolate, and watched the movie Polar Express.

As the movie began we punched their tickets and handed out cookies. Every student received a jingle bell from Santa to take home. Each of the classes read the book on Monday to establish a background for the big event.

Knights Host Christmas Basketball Tourney

The Catholic Knights varsity boys basketball team gets the Christmas holidays off to a rousing start this weekend, hosting the Catholic Christmas tournament on the campus of Huntingdon College.

The Knights, winners of four straight games, are now 7-3 overall and 3-0 in area play. They will be joined in the tournament by Trinity, LAMP, Tallassee, Georgiana, Beulah, Bayside Academy of Daphne and Faith Academy of Mobile.

Play begins at 2 p.m. Friday with Trinity taking on Georgiana. Catholic meets Beulah at 3:30, followed by Bayside vs. LAMP at 5 and Tallassee vs. Faith at 6:30.

All teams will play two games on Saturday with the pairings determined by Friday's results. Saturday's play includes two four-game sessions. Session two begins with consolation bracket games at 9 a.m. Session three begins with more consolation bracket games at 3:30 and concludes with the tournament championship game Saturday night at 8.

All games are being played in the Catherine Dixon Roland Arena at Huntingdon's Delchamps Student Center. There three sessions in the tournament and the admission price is $5 per session. A tournament pass can be purchased on Friday for $12. Knight Passes are not valid for this tournament.

St. Bede PTC hosts Muffins with Mom

Mothers of children at Montgomery Catholic's St. Bede campus recently enjoyed an early morning breakfast during the Parent-Teacher Council's (PTC) "Muffins with Mom" at the St. Bede Family Life Center.

It was standing room only for the mothers and children during the before school event where they enjoyed delicious coffee, juices, and muffins (of course!)graciously served by the dads of PTC. Photographs of each family were also provided as a keepsake.

Pictured is Mrs. Vonda Wood with her daughters Claire and Caroline during St. Bede PTC's annual Muffins with Mom.

Welcome to our wetu!

The little tribe of kindergartens at Montgomery Catholic's St. Bede campus were very busy building their wetu for the playground for Thanksgiving. The kindergarten students partnered with their third grade buddies to turn their jungle gym into a wetu to use during recess. A Wetu is a domed hut, used by some north-eastern Native American tribes such as the Wampanoag. They provided temporary shelter for families wandering the wooded coast for hunting and fishing. Mrs. Redden's Kindergarten glass is all smiles in front of their wetu.

Britton Named 2009 YMCA Chief Justice

Montgomery Catholic junior D'Jara Britton was named as Chief Justice for the 2009 YMCA Youth Judicial during the 2008 program.

As part of the closing ceremony, the presiding Chief Justice Sam Hobbs passed the gavel to the newly elected Chief Justice for the following year.

Britton served as a judge at this year's YMCA Youth Judicial program. Also from Montgomery Catholic, Matthew Copeland and Cleo Smith served as Judges and Marie Quillin and Morgan Newton, served as bailiffs of the court.

Pictured: Montgomery Catholic's 2008 YMCA Youth Judicial judges Matthew Copeland, '09 Chief Justice D'Jara Britton, and Cleo Smith.

Montgomery Catholic Students Named Top Plaintiff Team at Youth Judicial

The Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School Youth Judicial team had an extraordinarily successful weekend at the 2008 Alabama YMCA Youth Judicial mock trial competition held recently in Montgomery.

The team led by attorneys Brandon DuBois, Wallace Harvey and Aaron Weber with witnesses Lora Burke, John Dugan, Rebecca Hails and Thomas Sutton, were chosen as the top plaintiff team and tried the case again in the Final Trial on Monday morning. Although they did not win the verdict, however, they performed so well during the course of the weekend that they were chosen, as a team, to represent the State of Alabama at the National Mock Trial Competition to be held in May. In addition, Aaron Weber was named the top plaintiff attorney of the weekend.

The other MCPS plaintiff team, led by attorneys Austin Barranco, Butler Parker and Tom Visco with witnesses Lauren Gore, Justin Hughes, Lowell Moore and Caroline Starr, won the 2nd place plaintiff team award and served as jury members in the Final Trial.

Three MCPS students D’Jara Britton, Matthew Copeland and Cleo Smith served as Judges and two others, Marie Quillin and Morgan Newton, served as bailiffs.

Other participants from Montgomery Catholic were Roscoe Anderson, Austin Barranco, Hannah Carter, Clarissa Deal, Jim Dugan, Dominic Godwin, John Preston Houston, Ashley Johnson, Jacob McAlpine, Alex McGough, Amalia Otero, Frederick Randall, ML Shipman, Alex Taylor,
Justin Taylor, Lizzie Terino, and Elizabeth Thrower.

The final act of the Youth Judicial program is always the announcement of the winner of the election for Youth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

This year the gavel has gone to D’Jara Britton, who will serve as Chief Justice at the 2009 competition.

Also in attendance were three former MCPS students, Julian Arrington, Brianna Morgan and Kierra Rumph, who began a Government Club at their new school, St. Jude. Paul Allen, a relative of our MCPS family, was named top defense attorney.

Pictured: YMCA's Youth Judicial Top Plaintiff Team from Montgomery Catholic (left to right) Thomas Sutton, Brandon DuBois, John Dugan, Wallace Harvey, Aaron Weber, Rebecca Hails, and Lora Burke.

Three Students Selected for W.I.L.D. Foreign Language Weekend

Three students from Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School attended the 5th Annual W.I.L.D. (Weekend Immersed Language Development) weekend at the YMCA's Hargis Retreat Center in Chelsea. Activities included films, games, music, art, history and grammar.

Montgomery Catholic students selected for the W.I.L.D. weekend were sophomores Abigail Kindt and Laura Donohue for Spanish and junior Mark Hunkins for German.

Sponsored by the Alabama Association of Foreign Language Teachers and co-sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Foundation, the program is open to 10th , 11th and 12th graders who have completed a year of study in a foreign language, submitted their application with two letters of recommendation, school transcript, and an essay.

The students were only allowed to speak their target languages. At the closing ceremony, the students presented plays and dances that they practiced and learned during the weekend.

Pictured: Montgomery Catholic students Mark Hunkins, Abigail Kindt, and Laura Donohue who participated in the W.I.L.D. Foreign Language weekend.

St. Bede Artists Have "Gone to the Dogs"

The Fine Arts Department on Montgomery Catholic's St. Bede Campus hosted a family art night "Gone to the Dogs." Many families turned out for the event where they could choose a ceramic dog or cat figurine, select the paint colors, and create their own masterpiece. There were many door prizes, a coloring contest for the younger children, and light refreshments for everyone to enjoy. Each family placed their completed artwork in separate boxes to be glazed and fired in the art department's kiln. To view photos from the event, click here: http://family.webshots.com/album/568683665uMNUnz

Pictured: McKinley Boyd, daughter of St. Bede Fourth Grade teacher Allison Boyd, enjoys painting at St. Bede's "Gone to the Dogs" art event.