Web-a-Thon Recap

Our 2021 Spring Web-A-Thon aired live on March 13, 2021 and was a huge success. From over 130 donors and 13 sponsors, we raised $67,250 for teacher wish lists, tuition assistance, and our ASA endowment! You can watch (or rewatch) the entirety of the web-a-thon on Youtube. 

We started the evening with having every teacher wish list already fulfilled. These wish lists were filled with items that enhance our students' experiences in the classroom. The time, energy, and personal funds our teachers put in to help their students exceed is exceptional, and a donation to these wish lists also supported our teachers in gratitude for all their hard work.

John Matlak, our recently retired Development Director, and Sam Cummings, a former ASA parent, lead us through a series of exciting videos and announcements throughout the evening. We highlighted student talent, watched 8th graders go head to head in minute-to-win-it challenges, and showcased classroom performances. Eddie the Eagle even made an appearance! We also drew our raffle ticket winners live, after hitting a record number of raffle sales, selling 4,491 tickets and raising $22,455.

Congrats to our Raffle Ticket Winners

Congratulations to all buyers and sellers who won in our raffle ticket drawing. In case you missed it, our raffle winners were:

• $1,000 Grand Prize: Yvonne Denoo

• $500 Second Prize: Melissa Giles

• $250 Third Prize: Travis Olsen

Our seller prizes went to the following:

• Top Two Selling Families: Adeline Miller with 257 tickets, and Henry & Lena James with 209 tickets

• $50 Cash Prize: Grant Fein, Every Meyer, & Lucy Malecki

• Open Gyms: Henry James & Nick Moll

• Principal for the Day: Finley Kowalski & Elly Hulett

• Comfy Clothes Day coupons for families who sold 25 or more tickets will be passed out this week to students. Each student whose family sold 50 or more tickets will be able to pie an ASA staff member. The date for this will be April 16.

Challenge Updates

All of our challenge goals for the evening were met! Since the Web-A-Thon, these challenges are being fulfilled in a variety of ways: Mr. Kress, Mr. Debri, and Ms. I shaved their heads into a Mohawk; a handful of teachers, including Mrs. Beckwith, Mrs. Kapustka and Mrs. Patterson dyed their hair; Mrs. Bowman, Miss Ojenus, & Mr. Kress agreed to teach as Eddie the Eagle; and a handful of teachers will be sleeping on the roof of the school this May! Check social media for continued updates and pictures of these being accomplished. Save the Date for April 16th as the awarded color day for students (and teachers in ASA uniforms).

Announcements: April 30th, Campus Names, & T-Shirt Reveal

We made three exciting announcements during the web-a-thon:

• April 30th: There will be no school nor child care on April 30th. In order to honor the hard work of our staff members and students in the midst of the challenging year of the pandemic, we are giving everyone the day off.

• New Campus Names: When the 3rd grade moved campuses we set out this year to find a way to refer to our two different buildings that both describe their location as well as the age of students on site. After a few rounds of gathering insight from the community and discussion with the Board of Directors and ASA Pastors we have settled on building names that combine the 2 most popular suggestions. We are happy to share that the ASA Elementary Campus will now be referred to as the ASA Lower Campus at Diamond and the ASA Middle School will be referred to as the ASA Upper Campus at 4 Mile.

• New T-Shirts: Thank you to all students who submitted a design for our new t-shirt. We are excited to announce that our t-shirt for the year was designed by Wes Lehmkuhl! These t-shirts will be distributed to students and staff in the next few weeks. Additional shirts will be available for purchase for $16. We also had a large number of t-shirt designs that included the “Be Like Christ” tagline. We will combine these designs into a new t-shirt that will come out at All Saint’s Day 2021! 

Eagle Award

We are honored to have awarded the 2020 Eagle Award to Mr. John Matlak. There are a handful of people in the All Saints Academy community who can say they have made an impact on every single child at ASA. John Matlak is one of these people. John is someone who truly believes in the value of a Catholic education and went beyond his duties as the Development Director by helping in any way possible. Congratulations Mr. Matlak! You can watch Mr. Debri give this year’s eagle award to Mr. Matlak in the recording of the Web-A-Thon. A summary was also shared on a previous blog.

Last Supper Drawing

Congratulations to Denise Hyde for winning the stained glass last supper ornament! This ornament was created by Karen Szczytko, one of our ASA staff members.

Web-A-Thon Social Media Drawing

Thanks to the 17 families who posted on social media this weekend while they were watching the Web-A-Thon live! The winner of our $50 Amazon Gift Card is the Franceschi Family! Congratulations!

Save the Date for Eaglefest 2021
We hope to gather together again on November 13, 2021 after a year break from Eaglefest, our traditional yearly auction event.

 

Behind the Scenes at the Web-a-Thon

 

On Saturday March 13th, the ASA Upper Campus at 4 Mile Holy Family Learning Lab was transformed into a Television Studio. With the help of Peter Johnson and his team, lights, cameras, and soundboards were brought in and set up in preparation for us to "go live" from ASA. Marks were taped and our hosts were introduced to stage microphones while we reviewed directions, scripts and details for the evening. 

In the weeks leading up to March 13th, ASA community members and friends submitted various videos for our "variety show" and a script was written to tell the story of ASA in the year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the lens of our 4 Core Values:  Faith, Learning, Loving and Serving, we received encouraging messages, talent videos and class performances. The Web-a-Thon committee was introduced to the process for building a TV timeline so that these videos could be edited and lined up for the broadcast. 

At the same time a second portion of the Web-a-Thon committee was hard at work designing watch party "swag" gift boxes, collecting sponsors for the event, building website pages, and designing the Greater Giving platform for the event.  "Thank you!" to the committee members: Eileen DeWildt, Ashley Wilson, Susan Zarzecki, Patrick Ellis, Philip Mitri, Tim Stafford and Tom Vos. We could not have done this without them! This group meets just about every Monday, from September through March, brainstorming and planning for this event. 

On the night of the Web-a-Thon there was a lot going on behind the scenes! We had Miss Arbaugh and Mrs. Mitchell hosting a "watch party" for the representatives from 8th grade that participated in our live Minute To Win It segment! We also had Mrs. Zarzecki answering phones and providing the Greater Giving team (and hosts) live updates throughout the night! 

Thank you to everyone who donated and watched our web-a-thon live on Saturday! We raised $67,250 throughout the weekend! You can watch (or rewatch) the entirety of the web-a-thon on Youtube

Eagle Award 2020

The Eagle Award is presented each year by the Home and School Association to a member of the ASA community in acknowledgement of his or her extraordinary contribution to the success of All Saints Academy.  We began a new tradition in 2018, presenting this prestigious award on our school’s feast of All Saints Day. Of course COVID had us reroute our plans with this as well, so this year we awarded the Eagle Award at our Web-A-Thon on March 13, 2021.

 

This award enhances the culture of All Saints Academy by drawing attention to those who are living our Catholic faith and supporting our school mission by holding them up as an example for others to follow.

 

Prior recipients of this award have included: 

• 2011-Chris Burns
• 2012-Pete and Peg Gonzalez
• 2013-Mariae Firlit
• 2014-Christine Jarecki
• 2015-Linda Kozminski
• 2016-Judy Hardy
• 2017-Jon Fournier
• 2018- Deb Westveer
• 2019-Jenny LaPonsie 

Along with a trophy for them to take home, the recipient’s name will be added to a perpetual plaque that is displayed in the halls of both the ASA campuses for all to see.

 

While it is true that no great achievement is accomplished by the work of one person, a significantly great work like the creation, building and operation of All Saints Academy requires talented and committed people. The winners of this award reflect the characteristics we hope for in our students and need in our school family.

There are a handful of people in the All Saints Academy community who can say they have made an impact on every single child at ASA. John Matlak is one of these people. If we had a time machine and could go back six years ago and walk our halls, classrooms, and other learning spaces they would be almost unrecognizable. Each classroom has been outfitted with the most updated educational furniture. Students and staff are safer because of the security upgrades throughout both campuses. Even the decor of the walls has changed substantially. 

Beyond the material improvements, John became a public voice of ASA. Whether at Eaglefest or Eat Pray Run (and even coming out of retirement tonight!), when John spoke, people listened. But what the public may not have seen was the hours he spent prior to any of these events transporting tables, mapping out 5K courses, or tying balloons. John has a lot of sweat equity into ASA.

John was also someone who went beyond his duties as Development Director and helped in any way possible. Whether it was holding the door or answering the phone in the morning at the Elementary Campus or subbing for sick teachers and even teaching an elective at the Middle School Campus, John was always willing to help.

Finally, John is someone who truly believes in the value of a Catholic education. Of course we would know this from attending Eaglefest or any other time John emceed. But what I always valued most was our private conversations about the importance of Catholic education for our families. He cared so deeply about bringing this mission to everyone.  Congratulations Mr. Matlak.

Student Chromecasting Update

 

Thanks to a grant from the St Alphonsus Education Endowment we have been updating classrooms with Chromecast access for students. This upgrade allows students to present work on their device from their seats. It also makes the transition between teacher devices and student devices for presentations a little more smooth. Here we have a few pictures from the 3rd grade as they practice this new skill. 

Presentation skills as well as Cross Content Literacy standards are woven into our curriculum standards in all subjects. We are so thankful to the St. Alphonsus Education Endowment Board for helping us add this simple technology upgrade allowing us to easily integrate the practice of these important skills into our daily routines!