Education Notebook

Article: High schools raise spirits, thousands of dollars in three weeks

(Ed: The article appears in Wednesday's Post-Bulletin. I'll update with a link when it goes active.)

They set out to raise money but ended up raising spirits.

Rochester’s three public high schools capped their annual holiday fundraisers this week. Each of them raised between $12,000 and $21,500. The high schools held separate celebrations Tuesday afternoon.
Century High School raised $21,500 for Ronald McDonald House and Bear Creek Services, which helps people with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injuries.

Five people who live in Bear Creek group homes went to the school Tuesday for the celebratory activities, including a student-teacher dodge ball game, dance team performances and a tongue-in-cheek wrestling match between the Bear Creek Bear and the Century Panther.

It might have looked like nothing more than two teenagers wrestling around in mascot suits, but not to Julie Beck, executive director of Bear Creek. “This allows (the Bear Creek residents) to feel like members of the community,” Beck said. “All of the energy, all of the things the students are doing. In some ways, a few hours can change a lifetime.”

Jimmy, a non-verbal adult who lives in a Bear Creek home, showed his excitement once he spotted Santa Claus sitting with the Century band. Others residents joined in at different times, dancing with students who were performing on the gymnasium floor.

“It doesn’t occur to them that they are the only ones up there beside the students,” Beck said. “The kids don’t laugh at them. They laugh because of them, because of the innocence (of the adults).”

The giving continued in classrooms across town. Mayo High School raised more than $12,000 to benefit the Dorothy Day Hospitality House, and John Marshall High School students brought in $18,000 for Christmas Anonymous.  Students from Lourdes High School also participated in Christmas Anonymous, which buys items for needy families during the holidays. Families shop at the Christmas Anonymous store, held at Christ United Methodist Church.

“It’s a really good feeling. It makes you feel good as a person,” said Rachinna Khan, a senior who helped organize the effort at John Marshall.

Keeping the mood light, Tuesday’s celebrations also including head shavings and pies in the face. A few JM students showed their commitment to the cause by waxing off patches of their hair. Khan said senior Will Hertel might have got the worst of it by choosing his chest.

“I think Will was bleeding a little,” Khan said, laughing. “I felt bad for him.”

Away from painful wax treatments and mascot fights, the outreach efforts show students what truly matters during the holidays, said Rita Hendrickson, director of campus ministry at Lourdes.

“It is important for young people to know what it’s like to serve another in need. There’s nothing like it,” Hendrickson said. “I think in a world, with our culture that is all about me, it is imperative to build the kingdom to say, ‘No. It’s about them.”

Rochester Catholic Schools still passing the plate for new Lourdes High

Not much new to report here, but the campaign to raise funds for the new Lourdes High School continues on, as does the work to sell the current site.

The Lourdes Foundation is trying to raise $15 million for the new building and so far about $11 million has been pledged. That's about a million more than reported in September, when the Lourdes Foundation held an alumni fundraiser in Minneapolis, the first such outside of Rochester.

In 2007, Lourdes announced it was moving from its site at 621 W. Center St. to 23.5 acres at the southwest corner of 19th Street Northwest and Valleyhigh Drive, next to the Rochester Athletic Club.

Ground hasn't started moving on the site yet, and due to the slow economy Lourdes has delayed its move until 2012, a year later than first planned. (That was announced months ago.)

The current Lourdes site has been valued at $10.4 million, according to county records. The question still lingers: will the site become the newest Mayo Clinic property? Nothing to report on that end, but stay tuned in the coming months for something to shake out from the site.

Swipe: Lourdes High hit hard by H1N1

Lourdes High has been particularly hit hard from H1N1, coming from today's story by PB health reporter Jeff Hansel.

According to the report, about half of the schools 442 students have been out sick at least one day.  From the article:

Principal Thomas Donlon said he's rethinking the way the school responded during the first wave of H1N1 and wonders if the school should have closed. "If you've got five petri dishes, he said, "it makes sense that you'd take the hottest one out. That's kind of what Lourdes was."

I've got something in the works about H1N1, but we'll see if all comes together here this week. More to come.

LINK: H1N1 hits Lourdes High School hard