Mary Huels, daughter to Terry & Judy, is a Class of 2019 Graduate and was President of the Student Council

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Hello and good morning! I’m Mary Huels, this year’s Student Council President, and I would like to acknowledge all the achievements we have made this year.

At our first meeting in the beginning of the school year, we assigned each Student Council member a classroom that they would be recycling twice a week all throughout the year. A prayer schedule was also put into place to pray each afternoon during announcements.

On Spirit Day, Student Council members volunteered to face paint kids’ faces from PreSchool to 4th grade. The kids, as well as the volunteers, had so much fun showing off the designs to their friends.

In October, we promoted Red Ribbon Week. We handed out pledge cards to all the teachers to give to their students which they signed, promising to be drug free. We also tied red ribbons around the school is a reminder of the week’s purpose.

In November we made posters to put up around the school to collect gifts for the Gift of Love. Students from all grades brought in gifts, all of which were donated. Every student that donated a new gift received and out of uniform pass. To go along with the Gift of Love, we hosted a Toy Dance and open gym for the 5th through 8th graders. 146 gifts were donated from the entire school.

Before Christmas, we held a Candy Cane Message fundraiser. We sold candy cane messages for a $1 each. The students could then write a friendly note to their friend or teacher wishing them a Merry Christmas. The messages were paired with a candy cane to give to the friend. We raised a total of $564.75. All the money went to charity voted on by Student Council, Feed My Starving Children.

In March, Student Council put on a Movie Afternoon for the 4th and 5th graders. After school on a Friday afternoon, the students put on their pajamas and watched the movie. There were concessions, and the student with the best pajamas won free concessions.

In April the Student Council helped out the teachers. They cleaned and organized the rooms as a way to give back and thank them for all that they have done for us.

This year’s Student Council is proud of its accomplishments I want to give a BIG thank you to Mrs. Chappell and Mrs. Salit on behalf of the Student Council, for guiding us throughout the year. I will miss being part of this club, and I’m excited to see the amazing accomplishments of future student councils at Saint Francis. Thank you!

Thank you so much for your support this year of the Knights of Columbus Fish Fry!

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Dear St. Francis de Sales Parishioners/K of C Fish Fry Guests,

Thank you so much for your support this year of the Knights of Columbus Fish Fry! Because of you, the Knights of Columbus, Local Council 3954, is able to contribute more money directly to charity. And what a year we had!

2019 was the single largest, most successful year ever for the K of C Fish Fry in profit and attendance. Over the course of the 6 Fridays in Lent (save Good Friday), K of C served 2,199  guests (1,755 served in 2018), served over 1,150lbs. of fish, and brought in a total profit of $14,085.71 ($10,967.00 in 2018)! We also had over 75 volunteers across the 6 nights putting in at least 3 hours per shift. The response is always amazing. 

Now, as I always point out, 100% of K of C profit goes directly to charity. But which charities and how much? This year, we have selected 3 charities to receive donations. 60% of the profit, or $8,451.43, will be donated to Mt. St. Joseph’s, an intermediate care facility for handicapped women, right here in Lake Zurich. Mt. St. Joseph’s, being so local, is always near to our hearts. 30%, or $4,225.71, will be donated to Special Religious Development, or SPRED, a charitable facility which assists persons with developmental disabilities to become integrated into parish assemblies of Catholic worship through religious education. The remaining 10%, or $1,408.57, will be donated to The Center for Independence Through Conductive Education, a charitable facility helping those children and adults with physical disabilities gain independence.

Thank you for your continuing support of the K of C mission to assist those with intellectual disabilities. You have made my 2 year term as Grand Knight very memorable and successful in giving back to our community, and we hope to see you all next year! God Bless.

Thomas C. Wolter, Grand Knight, Knights of Columbus, Local Council #3954

A Note from the PTO

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We have had another amazing year and none of it could have been possible without our students, parents and volunteers. THANK YOU to all of you for making this year one of the best!

Our two largest fundraisers, Spirit Day and Bingo Night, have proven to become bigger and better with each  passing year. They did not disappoint once again.

Box Tops, Lux Wearhouse, Used Uniform, Dining for Dollars, Barnes & Noble Book Fair and Amazon Smile continue to be just as impactful in helping our school achieve our goals.

From our proceeds this year, the PTO has provided our school with new Science Lab chairs and Technology updates. We will continue to raise money for the STEM Lab Development and Extra-Curricular Program Expansion. We have also funded Teacher Driven Innovations for the classrooms. To name a few of these requests, teachers have been provided with the following for the classrooms: Computer apps for presentations, STEM materials for various grade levels, chess sets, a chick incubator, hands on manipulatives for math and reading, dash robots for coding, neuroscience units and computer science simulation programs

With our funds we are also able to host FREE events and offer in school/ classroom experiences such as the Cultural Arts Program, Roller Skating Party, Career Day in the Back to School Splash Bash.

We have welcomed to new faces to our PTO meetings and have increased our volunteer participation. As we look to the new school year we are welcoming new PTO Board members and more volunteers. Please consider volunteering your time and talent to our group by submitting year 2-Hour pledge. We have openings that will fit all schedules. Join us at one of our PTO meetings to learn more about the school and what we do.

With the school year coming to an end, the PTO continues to plan through the summer. When we head back to school, please join us at the Back to School Splash Bash on August 4th. This is a FREE event for all SFS families.

On August 13th we will be hosting Back to School Night. We will have various local vendor tables and visiting high schools. Girl and Boy Scouts, Spirit Wear, Used Uniforms, School Supply Packets, Dining for Dollar partners and much more!

“Faith opens the door and helps our Eagles soar”

We wish you and your family a happy and safe summer

The PTO - By the parents, with the teachers, for the students

Emmaus House of Hospitality in its 19th Year of Ministry

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Speech given by Brian Pozzi at Masses last weekend

For the past few years, we at Emmaus House had the privilege of providing a mass announcement about our ministry.  We are blessed to have the opportunity to do so again.

If you are new to the parish, or simply need a refresher, allow me to provide a brief description of what we do for the least of our brothers and sisters.

Each Sunday night, with a few exceptions, right below us in Father Valker Hall we provide a community dinner and perishable food pantry for those who face difficulties with feeding themselves and their families. The dinners themselves are generously provided by various groups looking for outreach opportunities such as: St Francis ministries, parish groups, civic groups, businesses, area churches and school organizations.

We hand out dairy, meat, bread and produce to our guests in the harvest room following dinner.  This bounty is designed to help our guests make it through the week more comfortably until our dinner the following week.  The food is donated by our generous retail partners in the area, such as Costco, Jewel,  Mariano’s, Trader Joe’s just to name a few.  Our volunteers go out to each of these establishments each week to rescue this food that we provide in the harvest room.

 In addition to Sunday dinner and food pantry Emmaus House also sponsors other important programs for our guests including: Jeepers Sneakers, which provides back to school shoes for children, Undie Sunday which distributes new underwear and socks for school age children.

Emmaus does other important work in our community. For example, in the past year, we have provided funding to pay rents, mortgages and utilities for people in danger of losing their homes or apartments. This critical funding provides people with much needed time to get back on their feet financially and to stay in their residencies.  These are just a few of the examples of the great things that the Emmaus House does each week.

As always, thank you to all who have volunteered or supported Emmaus House in any way by giving of your time, talents, resources and prayers. We could not do this without everyone’s help and we should be proud of this as parishioners in the Lord’s work.

Each year, we asked for additional support for our mission and the Lord answered our prayers. It is important to note that we are an entirely volunteer-led ministry. We have no employees of any kind. All of our Board Members and volunteers carve out time from their other family and professional responsibilities to contribute to this ministry.  Each year following mass announcements we are invigorated by new members of Emmaus House who work at our dinners, or rescue food, or serve on our Board or in some amazing cases, do all of the above. We are so grateful for the extra sets of hands, hearts and minds. It is truly a blessing. 

We pray that this year will be no different as we are still in need of new volunteers.  The good news is we have a great program set up by our founders. It’s our job to continue what they have put in place. You can help as little as you want or as much as you want. A much needed opportunity is to be Emmaus representative/coordinator for Rock the Block – for a third year Emmaus House will be the recipient of raffle proceeds that we will use to help us fund our important community projects. There are many more short or long term projects. The message is simply this. If you feel that you want to lend a hand, we will find a way for you to help as little or as much as you would like and fits your desires.

If you would like to learn more about Emmaus House and how you could help, I invite you to go to our website through the parish website, or give us a call. We are listed in the bulletin each week and the parish e-newsletter.

Finally, we cannot say it enough, on behalf of the entire Emmaus House, “Thank you Father Ryan for your support of our ministry”. We could not continue to function without your blessing. For the past several years Emmaus House has been the recipient of the raffle proceeds for Rock the Block. We would not be fortunate enough to have that benefit without the partnership and support of Father Ryan.  This is just one example, among countless other times, that Father Ryan looks out for opportunities to further the Emmaus House ministry.

Thank you again Father Ryan and thank you all for your support and for listening to our request for further help.

In memory of Cecilia Solecki, longtime tireless volunteer for Emmaus House and other parish ministries.

Save-A-Pet Collection

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This is Amelia Borst, a parishioner, me and some of my troop members (Troop 1409-Spencer Loomis) are working on our Bronze Award Project for Girl Scouts. Our project is to help Save-A-Pet. To help Save-A-Pet we asked what we could do to help, a volunteer at Save-A-Pet told us we could make kitten blankets as a welcome to your new home gift. We made around 70 hand sewn blankets which we have already donated to them. Now that we have finished our project we wanted to take it a step further and ask for donations to give to them. 

There are boxes in the gathering space to collect the needed goods listed to the right. 

FINAL DAY TO DONATE IS JUNE 10th!

SAVE THE DATE | Golf Outing!

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WE ARE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE OUR 5TH ANNUAL ST FRANCIS MILLION DOLLAR GOLF CLASSIC BENEFIT FOR THE YOUTH OF OUR PARISH WILL BE HELD AT WYNSTONE GOLF CLUB ON MONDAY SEPTEMBER 16TH

WE ARE LOOKING FOR DONORS, PLAYERS AND SPONSORS   

REGISTRATION IS OPEN!

FOR MORE INFORMATION  CONTACT
MATT BAINES 847 833 8000    PETE GALDONI 847 732 1790    JOHN SFIRE 847 878 8812

OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE
WWW.BIRDEASEPRO.COM/STFRANCISGOLFOUTING

Congrats on your First Holy Communion!

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Congratulations to the 137 children who received their First Holy Communion throughout the
month of May! God Bless!

Katherine Aldrich, Leonardo Alivia, Ryan Becker, Kailyn Beierwaltes, Jace Benedetti, Isobel Bettasso, Tyler Bish, Derek Boehm, Elijah Borst, Julianna Burgess, Gino Calabrese, Daniella Chiovari, Andrew Constantino, Ian Conway, Charles Cox, Benjamin Creasy, Addison Damptz, Edea De Cristofaro, Addison DiCicco, Jacob Dizon, Luke Dodds, Elise Edgcomb, Ellery Eklund, Cecelia Elliott, Jake Ericson, Benjamin Ferguson, Celia Foreman, Isabella Garry, Posey Geiger, Maya Gieblewicz, Joey Gillespie, Jonah Goldsmith, Jasmine Gorecki, Lily Gorecki, Liam Gorham, Tiernan Gorham, Alex Grala, Max Grund, Adrian Grzyb, Hailey Hamel, Kyle Haronik, Aidan Hasemeyer, Lily Herdus, Gabrielle Herdus, Evan Hope, Nora Hoxmeier, Devin Hull, Amelia Ignaciuk, Andrew Ippolito, Dean Jacobs, Ryan Jenkins, Finnegan Johnson, Sabastian Kaczmarski, Julia Kapinos, Lauren Kasprzak, Damian Kepka, Natalie Killen, Eric Knaga, Parker Koenigsknecht, Grace Kopilash, Henry Koppa, Corey Kruss, Kaleb Krysciak, Michael Kusmierz, Samuel Larocca, Jack Larson, Holly Lawson, Anthony Lesniewicz, Emma Lindberg, Julianne Lindsay, Sophia Linanne, Ellie Livesay, Amelie Maliszewski, Max Marbella, Beckett McGovern, Caileigh McGuiness, Jaycob Melin, Isa Mendes, Reagan Miller, Grace Monasteri, Alexander Morton, Vanessa Mosquera, Mikey Muir, Mira Nardiello, Lillian Ness, Reese O’Niell, Kasey Papa, Irene Park, Alexander Peterson, Julianna Pipala, Anabella Piper, Eli Piper, Luke Pitchford, Kimberly Radtke, Andrea Riascos, Francesca Roman, Caitlin Roscoe, Ania Rouse, Luca Salerno, Allison Santner, Sofia Santoro, Nicholas Saviano, Holly Schmitt, Eve Marie Schmitt, Evelyn Schweiger, Emily Scott, Benjamin Short, William Sikorski, Ethan Smith, Alyssa Smith, Gabriel Solbut, Anthony Sosa, Dayanara Sosa, Emma Stafford, Kloe Storzbach, Melissa Suarez, Lann Tarrant, Julianna Tito, Luca Tomaino, Eleanora Tonzi, Alexander Toth, Kaeden Valancius, Aiden Versino, Emma Watts, Lyla Wheeler, Kelly White, Tate Williams, Grace Witte, Cole Wojtalewicz, Jacob Wojtalewicz, Nicholas Wojtalewicz, Nicholas Wolter, Isaac Wood, Bella Wytrzymalski, Emilio Zepeda, Matthew Ziomek, Audrey Zych