COMMUNITY SERVICE HOURS There is no faster way to build community than for people to work together for a common goal. While dollars pay our bills, the generous contribution of people’s gifts and talents is equally important. Family service at the school creates one of the school’s great strengths – an interconnected community. In our small environment, parents not only get to know their children’s teachers and close friends, but many other parents, students, and faculty. Here at Saint Francis Xavier, the community really does raise the children! For this reason, we ask every family to give at least 15 hours of service to our school each year. We do acknowledge that some families have serious time constraints, and for that reason we offer a variety of opportunities to meet those hours. Below is a partial list of opportunities: Home and School: This is Saint Francis Xavier’s family organization. In addition to some fundraising, this organization also works to be the “heart” of our school by creating social opportunities that are fun for students, faculty, and families. They offer community support and host fundraisers and school events. ●
Opening Day BBQ: There’s no better way to start off another great school year than with a lunchtime barbeque. Volunteer opportunities include baking and serving.
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Helping Hands, Warm Hearts: We all need a helping hand now and then. Volunteers provide home-cooked meals or rides when someone in our school community experiences a death or exciting (but exhausting) birth.
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Craft Fair: This great community event features wonderful crafts, a huge raffle table and a bake sale full of homemade pies and other baked goods. Volunteer opportunities include soliciting raffle prizes, baking, selling baked goods and raffle ticket, greeting community, set-up, break-down, putting up signs and more.
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Calcutta: This fun-filled event raises over $10,000. It features a traditional Calcutta with the grand prize winner taking home $1,500! Volunteer opportunities include soliciting prizes, selling tickets, coordinating class projects and more.
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Scholastic Book Fair: The book fair is open during the school day and one afternoon per week so parents can shop too. The money raised from the Scholastic Book Fair is converted into "Scholastic Dollars" and used to purchase needed equipment for our library and classrooms. Volunteering consists of helping setup/breakdown and cashing out customers.
5 St. Peter Street, Winooski, VT 05468-1316 ~ (802)655-2600 ~ FAX: (802)655-3096 ~ www.sfxvt.org
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Halloween Party: Students and parents enjoy dressing up for the costumes contest and playing games. To make this party successful, volunteers help plan the event and chaperone the party.
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Bowl-A-Thon: Every year we reward our students with a half-day trip to Spare Time for some bowling, a costume contest, dancing and trivia. It’s a fun way to come together as a community Volunteering includes baking desserts and chaperoning.
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Teacher Appreciation Week: We are blessed to have wonderful and dedicated teachers educating our children. Each day has a different theme – dessert day, luncheon, breakfast, and books given to our library in their honor of each teacher, to name a few.
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Fun Day: We finish the school year off with a bang! Students are divided into multi-age teams and rotate through fun and creative stations. Volunteer opportunities include leading games and baking desserts.
Parent Ambassadors: This is an opportunity to share with the community the great things occurring here at Saint Francis School. This can entail visiting other parishes to explain our programs and share the good news about Saint Francis Xavier School, staffing a booth at local businesses to promote our school and summer programs, or taking advantage of other opportunities to promote our school. Lunch Room Help: We are pleased to be able to offer a hot lunch program at Saint Francis. One of the keys to success has been our ability to keep costs low by using volunteers to help with serving and clean up. Volunteers can help out every day, once a week or as a backup server.
Other Ways to Help Support Our School There are various promotions that help by provide money or equipment. Some are Boxtops for Education, Amazon Smile, Price Chopper Tools for Schools (seasonal), Hannaford Helps Schools (seasonal), using the GoodSearch search internet search engine, and making online purchases through the Schoolpop or SchoolMall portals. Invite your family and friends to sign-up to help our school, even those who live in other states. Some companies offer a matching grant for any donations, or enable you to direct your United Way contribution to our school. Generally, your Human Resource representative can provide information regarding these options.
5 St. Peter Street, Winooski, VT 05468-1316 ~ (802)655-2600 ~ FAX: (802)655-3096 ~ www.sfxvt.org
