St Francis of Assisi preschool-Grade 8 school, Triangle, Virginia

Mark your calendars now, so you won’t miss our Scholastic Book Fair. The Fair will end on May 14. All dates and times will be posted throughout the school.

We are pleased to bring you this Book Fair because it gives you and your children the opportunity to buy carefully selected, quality books and products at affordable prices. You’ll enjoy the excitement and atmosphere! Plus, proceeds from this event will benefit our school library.

As always, our Scholastic Book Fair promises to be a great event for literacy. We urge you to attend, and look forward to seeing you there!

A brother’s gift

When 3-year-old Stella was diagnosed with Wilms tumor, her mother, Laura, knew exactly where she wanted to go. It was no easy feat to move Stella and her six-week-old twin siblings to Memphis, but the family knew immediately that St. Jude Children's Research Hospital was Stella's best hope for survival.

But as Laura approached the doors to the hospital, she had to fight the urge to grab her little girl and run. She knew all too well the battle they were about to wage and the toll it could take on a family. Just eight years earlier, Laura had walked through those doors with Stella's older brother, Griffin.

A happy-go-lucky boy with sparkling blue eyes exactly like Stella's, Griffin had received his own Wilms tumor diagnosis. Griffin lost his battle in 2005.

The St. Jude staff assured Laura that this was Stella's cancer — her battle; not Griffin's. Experimental therapy Griffin had received was now a part of the plan St. Jude already had ready and waiting for Stella; the little sister he never knew.

"Griffin laid the groundwork for what could potentially be her cure. They learned so much from him, and we knew that," Laura says. "St. Jude helped us focus on Stella. We couldn't take away her hope."

Laura says that losing your child feels like falling off a cliff. When her second child was diagnosed with cancer, she didn't know if she could bear to go through it again. But once she walked through the doors of St. Jude, a familiar calm took over.

Stella's family has chosen to focus on the positive, allowing her to be just a 3-year-old, not a 3-year-old with cancer. She loves to play in the hospital's puppet theater and dance to the jukebox. She has friends her age who look like her. She's stubborn and determined and lights up a room. And she has years of research on her side. This is not Griffin's battle. It's Stella's.

At St. Jude, Stella's treatment has included surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Stella still has months of chemotherapy and radiation left before the family goes home and is together again, but her medical prognosis is favorable.

St. Jude has made great strides in Wilms tumor treatment in the years since Griffin was a patient. Stella's family has every reason to hope their little girl will be cured.

And Laura knows they will get there. "The adult I hope she becomes is the person she is today. She's just a brave little girl," Laura says. "I want to be her when I grow up."

After more than 30 years, Math-A-Thon is America's largest education-based fundraiser. Math-A-Thon is a supplemental math education program for grades K-8 that also serves as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital®. Each year thousands of schools participate in Math-A-Thon, helping to raise millions of dollars for the patients of St. Jude.

Since its inception, St. Jude has developed protocols that have helped bring overall survival rates for childhood cancers from less than 20 percent when the hospital opened in 1962 to more than 80 percent today. Your participation in the Math-A-Thon program helps make it possible for St. Jude to treat patients regardless of a family's inability to pay.

Quick facts about St. Jude:

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, maintains 78 inpatient beds and treats upwards of 260 patients each day.
On average, 5,900 patients visit the hospital each year, most of whom are treated on an outpatient basis.
St. Jude is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute.
In 1962, the survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer, was 4 percent. Today, the survival rate for this once deadly disease is 94 percent thanks to research and treatment protocols developed at St. Jude.
St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and from around the world.
The daily operating cost for St. Jude is $1.8 million, which is primarily covered by public contributions.

St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. No child is denied treatment because of a family's inability to pay.

To learn more about St. Jude, visit www.stjude.org.

To help get started on the MATHATHON, simply go to www.mymathathon.org. Go to 'Participate,' the click on 'state,' enter zip code (22172), click on St. Francis of Assisi School, then register and participate.

In addition to the information you receive from your children (Registration Form and Math Fun Book), you can also complete this information online.

Our goal this year is $5,000.00. We have a very special guest who will be visiting the classes and sharing his experiences with cancer treatment from St. Jude's. Though treated at a different hospital, research from St. Jude's was used as the protocol. We are so blessed to have this opportunity to help the children at St. Jude's and throughout the world.

Please contact me at weindelmayerg.sfas@gmail.com if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your generosity in supporting this endeavor.

Blessings,
Mrs. Geri Weindelmayer

https://sfas.follettdestiny.com

You will be able to search by title, author, subject, or series. You can also access Destiny Quest, which will give you a visual image of the book and also TitlePeek, which gives further details about the book, such as length, list of main characters, and a brief summary. Other exciting features of Destiny Quest allow you to see new titles added to our collection and a recommendation list based on titles you are searching.

This program will enable your child(ren) to search the catalog for books they need for school reports, projects, or for their own enjoyment. I am available to assist students @ 8 a.m. If you have any questions, please call or send me an email at weindelmayerg.sfas@gmail.com

Destiny Quest Section

This page will show you the Top Ten Books checked out; Resource Lists, and New Arrivals. This page also allows you to search for books by title, author, subject, keyword, and series (as in the Library Search Section). Books are displayed by their covers. You click on the book to find more information on it. You will also see similar books that you may like to read. You will also see if the book is available.

In Destiny Quest you can also look up other books by ‘browsing the shelf.’ Click on Browse Shelf to see titles and the covers of books.

In both Library Search and Destiny Quest you can add a book to “Your List” to check out at another time.
Enjoy using this great library program!

Our school is once again participating in the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Reading Program. This program begins on October 1st and ends on March 31st and students in grades Kindergarten through Grade 6 are eligible to participate.

BOOK IT is easy and fun! Your child has the opportunity too earn Reading Award Certificates by meeting monthly reading goals. These certificates can be redeemed at a participating Pizza Hut restaurant where your child will receive a BOOK IT! award and a free one-topping Personal Pan Pizza. I use our Reading Incentive Goals in conjunction with the BOOK IT! Program. If students in Kindergarten though Grade 4 read 10 books per month, they will receive a BOOK IT! certificate. Students in grades 5 and 6 need to read 5 books per month to receive this certificate.

This program is an integral part of our reading program. It has been designed to encourage reading in a wide range of areas and thus enrich each child's world view.

The program is based on the completion of four goals. As your child reads a book, record the title and author on the goal sheet. Each goal requires the reading of 10 books. When the goal is completed, return the goal sheet to school and your child will receive a certificate for completing the goal and the next goal sheet. A detailed description of the program will be sent home with the first goal sheet. Books that your child started reading as of the first day of August may be listed on the goal sheet.

Please encourage your child to read. If your child is unable to read, anyone may read to him/her. Certificates and goal sheets are sent home each week. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at weindelmayerg.sfas@gmail.com