As The Franciscan School (TFS) celebrates its 25th anniversary, we join with the other schools in the Diocese of Raleigh, and all Catholic schools across the country, next week to celebrate all that Catholic education provides to students and families. “Since 1974, National Catholic Schools Week has been the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. It starts the last Sunday in January and runs all week,” says the National Catholic Educational Association, or NCEA. This year, it runs from January 26th through February 1st. “The Catholic Schools Week (CSW) 2025 theme is ‘Catholic Schools: United in Faith and Community,’” according to the NCEA website. “Catholic schools have an irreplaceable role in the Church’s evangelizing mission. Building on the central goal of Catholic schools to form saints, Catholic schools teach and embrace the whole person, body, mind, and spirit. The fact that all members of a Catholic school community share the Christian vision of faith that Christ is the foundation of Catholic education unites the school as a faith-filled community.”
Catholic Schools Week will also be a ‘Spirit Week’ for TFS as the school honors those who make Catholic education special here at St. Francis. Family participation starts on the first weekend, as parents and students volunteer to serve at Masses. Heidi Hobler, the St. Francis Preschool Director, and Dawn Smith, TFS’ Principal, will also speak at each Mass on January 25th or 26th about their schools and the excellent education provided by the schools in a Catholic setting. Dawn says, “This is a fun week of spirit and celebration. Students are invited to dress up as we celebrate the valuable impact of Catholic education throughout the week.” The schedule for each day incorporates the seven themes of Catholic Schools Week:
- We celebrate our Parish at Mass by inviting all families, faculty, and staff to mass at St. Francis on January 25th or 26th and encourage students to wear their school uniforms. Donuts & coffee will follow the 9:00 AM Mass.
- Monday, we are celebrating Vocations with Hat Day! What hat will you wear? Who is God calling you to be?
- Tuesday is the celebration of our Students with Pajama Dress Out Day and donuts! Many thanks to the Home and School Association for providing donuts to celebrate our students.
- We celebrate our Nation on Wednesday, and students will wear their Sunday Best to School!
- On Thursday, we will honor our Faculty, Staff, and Volunteers and hold a TFS 25th Anniversary Silver & Bling Dress Out Day!
- On Friday, we will celebrate our families and community by wearing TFS Spirit Wear to school and reward our teachers and staff with a faculty lunch!
Of course, as is the tradition when we celebrate our faith, we have several service projects and presentations reinforcing why we believe what we do as Catholics. As part of the families and community celebration on Friday, our next Catholic Social Teaching (CST) Day will be held with the theme ‘Family, Community, and Participation.’ We will have several speakers for the students, including our priests! Father Jim will speak on the Franciscan ethic of addressing poverty; Father Joseph will bring all that the hospital ministry provides in the community to our students, and our pastor, Father Chris, will discuss the Prison Ministry. We are fortunate to have an outside speaker from Carroll’s Kitchen speaking to the 8th grade and bringing cookies! In line with these latter two presentations, and as part of this CST day event, a theme of the day (at an age-appropriate level) will address the Corporal Work of Mercy of ‘Care for the Imprisoned.’ When we value and care for every community member, no matter who they are, we serve as channels of God’s love for all!
We will have several other service projects during or kicking off that week. Once again, we will host our ‘Book Harvest’ book drive during the entire Catholic Schools Week. Book Harvest is an organization that provides books and ongoing literacy support for children in need. From Monday, the 27th, through Friday, the 31st, we will collect gently used and new children’s books in the Thea and Siena reception offices. Additionally, a longer project, beginning on Friday, will encompass several weeks in support of our worldwide community. We will kick off the ‘Read to Feed’ service project supporting Heifer International. It will function as a read-a-thon where parents, friends, and relatives can pledge an amount per page, and all donations will benefit Heifer International. Heifer provides families in need with gifts of livestock, tools, learning, and resources. “We recently learned that they not only support families and farms worldwide,” says Dawn, “but even locally in Rougemont, NC.” The service project will begin on Friday, Jan. 31st, the last day of this year’s CSW, and end on the next CST day at TFS, appropriately on Friday, Feb. 14th, Valentine’s Day.
We love Catholic education, not only for the excellent education provided but also for the reinforcement and everyday experience of our Catholic Faith in our schools. Many of our families sacrifice significantly to provide their children with a Catholic education, and we appreciate that sacrifice. TFS provides significant tuition assistance each year to help families needing assistance to provide a Catholic education to their children. It’s crucial to our families that the students have the opportunity to hear about God during the school week, every week, and learn how to put the tenets of our faith into action to help those we are called to serve by that same faith! Thanks to everyone at our parish who supports the education efforts of St. Francis of Assisi.
