A spiritual, celebratory time at O'Neil
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We can’t believe Christmas is only a week away!
With the holidays just around the corner, the students of O’Neil are very busy with all the spiritual events that are going on in the school community.
To celebrate, student council is holding the annual Christmas Cheer Events tomorrow. Grade 5 and 6 students will be able to participate in ‘Reindeer Games.’ The classes will take part in making crafts, creating cheers, playing games and so much more.
So what about Grades 7 and 8? The intermediate classes will take part in a school dance in the gym. What could be better than this? We've already had ‘Christmas Character Day’ and many students dressed up as some pretty impressive Christmas characters! We had our school Mass with St. Joseph's School at St. Mary's Church, and many of our students were hard at work helping with the Christmas baking for this annual event.
Sometimes we forget what the real meaning of Christmas is because we receive presents and gifts. But we have to remember the reason why we have Christmas – and that’s Jesus. We hope you have been attending the Advent celebrations at St. Mary’s church every Sunday. We have lit our third Advent candle and the fourth will be lit this coming Sunday.
Also, the truest meaning of Christmas is giving. And that’s exactly what our school did. This Tuesday, our students finished the annual food drive. In total, the students collected more than 500 non-perishable items for the people who need it most.
December is the month for poinsettias. Our school recently sold these wonderful flowers. Thank you to all those who bought them to support Monsignor O’Neil.
And finally, we have some exciting news – to deter bullies and to make everyone feel as they belong, we have a new addition to the school, called Noble Knights. Brayden Petrella, Liana LeBlanc, Danielle Simmonds, Luke Hymers, Brett Morris, Olivia Kennedy, Levi Racine, Jordan DaCamara, Georgia VanLouwe, Alivia Chanyi, Rachel Wilson, Mackenzie Squires, Azlyn Grose, Brianne Chatterson, Mackenzie Simmonds, Avery Vanwynsberghe, Meg Coyle, Dimitri Carvalho, Kathryn Ecker, Giel VanHaren, Kristian Walker, Aaron DaCosta and Karmyn O’Grady will be working together to make our school community an even better place.
The Noble Knights will be working with many special visitors and will train to be the best! Their training will take place in the new year, when they will receive their official ‘Noble Knight’ hats.
Have an amazing Christmas and a happy New Year. See you after the holiday season!
Sami Maerten and Alana Luciani