December Newsletter
As we are now in the midst of the holiday season with its associated stresses, let us cultivate our connection with its primary virtues of gratitude and selfless giving.
In that vein, we wish to thank all of you who so generously donated various food items during our annual Food Drive in November. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving one 7th and one 8th grade student packed up these items and we delivered them to St. Peter’s Haven Food Pantry. These were used to help needy families in the Clifton area.
This month we highlight the comprehensive virtue of Charity. We encourage our teachers to guide their students beyond the usual understanding of charity as giving money to the poor. Giving money is but one expression of selfless giving. Another expression of that giving is when every December our choir goes to City Hall to sing for the Mayor of Clifton and his staff as well as at the nearby senior citizens center. We wish to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude to Mayor James Anzaldi for his support of New Hope School over many years as he retires this coming January 1st. We wish him well in his well-deserved retirement.
As you know, in November we launched our fifth annual Read-a-Thon, our 99Pledges fundraiser. With your support, as of this writing on the last day of the fundraiser, New Hope School has raised a total of $3,491 with 54% of families participating. On behalf of our staff and the entire school, I wish to extend my heartfelt appreciation to all of you who gave in support of this year’s fall fundraiser.
If your child is in 3rd grade or above, we hope you will support his/her involvement in our annual Spelling Bee, which will be held the morning of Thursday, December 22nd. We will be choosing ten finalists who will then compete in January for the right to represent our school at the regional spelling bee at Bergen Community College in March.
Finally, please note that our annual Winter Concert will take place on Tuesday, December 20th, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. This year’s program will include performances from our dance class, choir, and each of our grades plus winners of an essay contest we are holding on the topic Charity Begins at Home.
Wishing you Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year!
New Hope School Staff
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.”
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address