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Updated December 2008

Events & Projects, Food Drive, Advent Project, Lenten Project

Advent Projects 2008
Each year during the Advent season the children of St. Matthew School help the needy in our community.  Our goal is to give of ourselves and to help others have a wonderful Christmas.

We have a variety of projects taking place this year. Here is a summary:
Grade 1 will be painting wooden snowmen to sell at Cookies Galore.  The money they raise will be donated to the Center for Women in Transition.
Grade 3 will be adopting a family through Crisis Nursery.  They will be assisting them with holiday season needs.  Third grade has plans to continue working with Crisis Nursery throughout the year.
Grade 4 collected items to send to the soldiers in Iraq.  They also made fleece blankets to send along with the care packages.  Throughout the year they will be writing letters to the soldiers.
Grades K, 2 and 5-8 will help provide Christmas for several families in our community. Lists of needed items will be available in the classrooms, and students can sign up for the gift they would like to purchase for this project. 

THANK YOU for your help as we share St. Matthew’s peace and joy in completing these service projects!

"Students annually decorate bags for the Crisis Nursery Christmas Sale."

Food Drive 2008
St. Matthew School will collect food for the annual Food For Families drive, which will provide food to the Eastern Illinois Food Bank for distribution to charitable agencies in a 15-county area. Food will be collected from now until November 3 and can be brought to school and placed in one of the containers located in the main hall of the school. Thank you. The following kinds of food are needed:

"Service Club members help out at the Stewardship Festival"

A bake sale took place on Friday, October 17 during the three lunch periods. This annual fundraiser was for our student in Tanzania, Africa, Erick Bernard. It was the third year that St. Matthew students raised money to pay for Erick's tuition to St. Peter Claver Catholic School. The bake sale this year raised $573. Thank you for your support!
Students participated in "It's all in the Jeans Day" on Friday, October 10, 2008. Students contributed a $1.00 towards breast cancer research and education in our area and wore their blue jeans and a white or pink shirt to school that day. The school raised $476. Thank you to all those who were so generous!

Lenten Project 2008
St. Matthew Service Club sponsored a Family Movie Night on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 in the old gym. The movie presentation was Ratatouille. There was no admission fee but donations were accepted. Concessions included pizza, popcorn, candy and other snacks. The proceeds will be used to help finance a building at the orphanage in Tanzania for students like Erick(our adopted student) to come back to when they are not at school. A St. Matthew parishioner contributed $750 in hopes that we could match it. The total for the movie night was $1,687.50. Thanks to all who contributed!

There was also an Alms jar in each classroom. The money was contributed to our Sisters for their Order's mission. St. Matthew students donated $1,208.19 to the classroom collections.  Thank you all for your generosity.