Fenwick Mothers Club Meeting Minutes January 17, 2017

Transcription

1 Fenwick Mothers Club Meeting Minutes January 17, CALL TO ORDER at 12:30pm Tina Dillon, Mothers Club President called the meeting to order and Fr. Dennis began with meeting with A Mother s Prayer. He also told a very touching story of a senior student who came to visit him one day. She told Fr. Dennis that her goal for her last semester at Fenwick is to complete her homework every night by 7pm so she could spend the evenings with her mom watching their favorite shows like they used to. She really wanted to spend the time with her mom before college. Many were brought to tears about this thoughtful gesture. 2. INTRODUCTIONS A. Past Presidents in attendance: Sheila Ryan and Michaela Creber Tina Dillion introduced the Executive Board Members Tammy Mortell-President-Elect Jane Gaffigan-Recording Secretary Melissa Vrdolyak-Corresponding Secretary Katie Handfland-Vice President Mary Bartecki-Treasurer Fr. Dennis Woerter-Mothers Club Moderator B. Welcome Tina welcomed all the moms to the first Mothers Club meeting of C. All Welcome Tina encourages everyone to get involved by joining committees they find of interest. There are volunteer sheets on the back table as well as circulating during the meeting. Sign-Up Genius for the 2nd

2 half of the year events will be available online soon. Please look into signing up for upcoming events. Join in and get involved. D. Mothers Club Information Information is sent in many ways for Mothers Club. Please be sure to read the Fenwick Bulletin sent on Mondays and Thursdays. It is full of information regarding Mothers Club events. 3. SPEAKERS A. Father Richard Peddicord-President Fr. Peddicord thanked all Mothers Club members on behalf of the Fenwick faculty & staff for the wonderful Christmas Luncheon held on December 21st. All were very touched by the thoughtfulness and generosity of the Fenwick family. There were 504 students here on Saturday, January 14th to take the Entrance Exam. This is the largest number of students in Fenwick history! For the second year in a row on MLK Day, Fenwick s basketball team played against Simeon. Fenwick is the first suburban school to play at Simeon. Both Fenwick and Simeon coaches have committed to playing one another on MLK Day. It is a wonderful tradition and the students from both schools had a great time. There is a wonderful article in the Chicago Sun Times about the teams playing one another. It s worth the read! Finally, Mr. Rufino received a very interesting call from Queen of Heaven Cemetery. The cemetery had a statue of the Mother Mary with a note attached, Please return to Fenwick. And he was asked to come and pick up it up. No one is quite sure where it came from and/or when it disappeared. Fr. Peddicord along with Fr. Dennis started looking through Fenwick yearbooks to see if they could spot the statue. First, they saw it in the 1952 yearbook. They dug a bit deeper and found it in the 1942 yearbook. Quite the mystery! Mr. Ruffino s office is working on restoring the statue to its original form. B. Mr. Peter Groom-Principal There are new opportunities for the curriculum. At the junior level, there will be a cross-curriculum English & History class for Honors students. The class will be taught back to back with

3 involvement from both teachers. This is a unique opportunity for some students to be part of. Freshman History in the 1st Semester will focus on History of Medittereanian world, up until The 2nd Semester will focus on World Civilization from 1500 to the 20th century. This allows the students to be more educated on current history. It is now a State requirement that all high school students take Civics. This is now part of the curriculum and the rising sophomores will be required to take Civics next year. This summer there will be a 2 week Algebra course for current freshman wanting to move to Honors as a sophomore. This will catch them up on all material the Honors class covered during the year. There will also be an intro class for Computer Science focusing on skills for business. Please talk with your student and/or their counselor before registering for next year s classes. Mr. Groom is asking all students who are participating in Banua to be respectful of the teachers. It is not acceptable to insult the teachers in their skits. C. Mr. Richard Borsch & Mrs. Laura Docherty-College Update Students have been receiving their Early Decision and Early Acceptance letters in the mail. This has been a very exciting time for some students. In February the early decision letters will be arriving and regular admittance will be in April. May 1st is final day for students to select their college. Remind your seniors not to get senioritis and to stay on their studies! First semester grades have been sent to schools this week and colleges will be sent 2nd semester grades at the end of the year. And Financial Aid packets are available and they are due January 31st. Juniors-ACT, SAT & AP s. Juniors should take both the ACT & SAT exams at least once! Retake the test to get the highest score. They should be taking to teachers about course selection for next year. They should be selecting the courses they will have the highest success rate. If they can handle AP classes, they should be considered if they can be successful in the class.

4 Over the summer Fenwick will again be hosting College Summer Series. Wonderful professionals come to Fenwick to speak to students (highly recommended for Juniors, but all are welcome) about what colleges and universities are looking for in future students. Spring Break and Summer is great time to visit college campuses. It helps students know what they are looking for in a school. Sophomores should be looking to build their college resume. They need to focus on challenging courses that they can be successful in. Teachers can help guide sophomores and freshman when deciding on courses for next year. Freshman will be set up with Naviance soon. D. Mr. Joe Ori-Director of Admissions Quick recap of Entrance Exam held last Saturday. there were 504 students testing. Every year we are nervous about attendance, so please help get the word out to help increase numbers. Current enrollment is E. Mr. Roger Finnell-Banua Preview Banua will be held in the Fenwick Auditorium at 7:30pm on Friday, January 27th and Saturday, January 28th. Shows vary slightly night to night with 16 different skits. There are 98 students performing in Banua and 25 crew members working hard being the scenes. Several students will be giving a brief performance to build excitement. The performing acts are: Laura Kelly & Bridget Costello signing Ingrid Michaelson s The Way I am. Grace Toriello and Mike Herrara will be singing Lady Gaga s You & I Final performance is by Alexa Adams & Tommy Schneider signing 4 or 5 Seconds by Rihanna and Kanye West. BFG (Blackfriars Guild) The spring musical is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and will run April 21st-23rd. There will be a Children s Choir of 70 grade school students in the show as well. This is the first time to include the younger students, and they are amazing. Come out and support the students!

5 4. OLD BUSINESS A. November 2016 Minutes Approval Minutes were approved by Mary Bartecki and seconded by Sheila Reilly B. Treasure s Report-Mary Bartecki We have had a lot of events recently! Mothers Club Christmas Luncheon was well attended. Expenses were the Faculty and Staff Christmas Luncheon held on December 21st. Solicitation for Faculty and Staff Appreciation Fund brought in a little more money than last year. We have had great sale opportunities for the Cookbooks at Black & White Shopping Night, Parent Teacher Conferences and the Mothers Club Christmas Luncheon. The cookbooks have helped recover some monies lost to the uniform resale which are lower due to the new skorts. The next event is the Fashion Show in March and donations are welcome! C. Thank You-Acknowledgements 1. Hospitality-Elly Frymire-Cone, Jodi Darrow & Lisa Henige Jodi thanked those who provided today s delicious lunch. Sign up sheet for future meetings is being passed around. 2.Christmas Mass & Luncheon-Elizabeth Fisher & Katie Hanfland Katie said this was the largest luncheon with 196 in attendance. This year alumni moms were also invited. It was a wonderful event that everyone truly enjoyed! 3. Faculty & Staff Christmas Luncheon-Sheila Reilly & Kathleen Wilson. Faculty Raffle Baskets-Janet Waring Sheila, Kathleen and their committee transformed the cafeteria for the Faculty & Staff. The decorations were beautiful and truly transformed the space. Sheila thanked all the servers. 4. Faculty & Staff Appreciation Fund-Cindy Cahill & Sheila Reilly Sheila thanked everyone who contributed to the Appreciation Fund. They were all very appreciative of the generous gift.

6 5. NEW BUSINESS A. Fenwick Cookbook Vol. III Kelly Brennan, Michaela Creber & Katie Filbin More than half of the printed cookbooks have been sold. They will be available at future Mothers Club meetings as well as the Fashion Show. B. Outreach-Melissa Vrdolyak 1. Prayer Chain-Anyone in need of prayers or if you would like to be part of the prayer chain, please contact Melissa and she will gladly add you to the list. 2. Retreat-The annual retreat will be held on Thursday, February 23rd from 8:30am-2pm at Carmelite Spiritual Center in Darien. This event is also open to alumni. You can pay online or you can mail a check to Melissa. C. Giftware-Allison Guinean & Caroline Prabhu Nora Fleming has designed a Fenwick shield mini. They can be purchased online for $15 and $10 will be donated back to the Mothers Club. D. Fashion Show & Dinner-Donna Coffey, Julie Cronin, Tina Hutchinson, Marie Lillig, Michelle Moore & Bridget Winkel The Fashion Show & Dinner will be at Drury Lane on Thursday, March 9, This year s theme is Be Our Guest and all invites will be mailed out this week, so look for it in the mail. There will be a raffle and currently there are 10 raffle items available. E. Fashion Show Raffle & Diamond Raffle Some raffle items are: Louis Vuitton bag, Peninsula Spa, Kinsey Hotel & Harry Caray gift certificates, Fenwick Tailgating, Wine tasting for 8, Cherish the Moment-Fr. Peddicord will bless and hold Mass in your home for 25 people along with a case of wine, Custom Maple Fenwick logo chair, Alioto s Entertaining pieces. The Diamond Raffle this year is a beautiful diamond necklace worth $1,100! There will only be 200 Diamond Raffle tickets, be sure to buy yours early! If you are unable to attend the fashion show and want to participate in the raffle, you can. Purchase raffle tickets and they will make sure your tickets are placed in the correct raffle.

7 F. 65th Annual Black Friars Scholarship Dinner Dance The Dinner will be held on Friday, April 28th. The committee is currently looking for more volunteers, please let them know if you can help! G. Senior/Mother Mass & Brunch The event will be held at Oak Brook Hills on Sunday, May 7th. More details to follow as the event gets closer. H. Senior Post Prom Prom will be held Saturday, May 17th and post prom will immediately follow at Fenwick. There are 3 co-chairs and 4 shadow chairs. Senior parents are not able to help at post prom, but they can be on the committee and help beforehand. This year s theme is Casino Night. Volunteers are needed throughout the night as it is big event and to run the casino tables. Every year there are raffle prizes for the students. If you are able to donate any raffle prizes, it is greatly appreciated. Some donation ideas: Sports tickets, theme baskets, gas cards, and restaurant gift certificates. I. Committee Chairs for If you are interested in chairing a committee next year, please contact Tammy Mortell. J. Nominating Committee Nominating committee will meet in March as they are in the process of looking for a new Board. Please consider nominating yourself or a friend for next year s Board. The Nominating Form is here and is also available on the Mothers Club web page. Positions: President- Elect, Vice President, Corresponding Secretary, Recording Secretary and Treasurer. If you are interested in serving on the Nominating Committee, please contact Tammy Mortell. K. February Meeting Next meeting will be here at Fenwick on Tuesday, February 7th at 12 noon. Please join us! Tina Dillon thanked everyone for attending the meeting and adjourned the meeting at 1:50pm.