{"id":23574,"date":"2019-04-18T12:38:59","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23574"},"modified":"2019-04-18T12:39:10","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:39:10","slug":"ten-years-is-just-the-beginning-for-st-maxmilian-kolbe-c-h-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/ten-years-is-just-the-beginning-for-st-maxmilian-kolbe-c-h-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten years is just the beginning for St. Maxmilian Kolbe C.H.S."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can measure ten\nyears in time, but St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic High School is preparing to\nmark their first decade in Aurora by measuring their first decade in people and\nrelationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Max, Aurora\u2019s\nnewest high school, is set to celebrate its tenth anniversary on May 10 with a\ncelebration for the entire community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tickets are on sale\nnow for the anniversary celebration, which begins with a special mass, a Walk\nfor Water benefiting the WE Foundation, two rugby matches, an evening open\nhouse and gallery walk, mural unveiling, and a closing ceremony with a surprise\nguest performer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is important to\nmark a 10-year anniversary because this school has been an important learning\nhub in this community since 2009,\u201d says Principal Peter Parente. \u201cHaving taught\nhere from 2010 \u2013 2012, and coming back as Principal, I can say [St. Max] is\nreally ahead of the curve in how we work with kids inside the classroom and\nout, our attitudes towards inclusion and student participation, and putting\nstudents and our faith at the forefront of all that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This focus on\ninclusivity is what teacher Fausta Martini, a member of the anniversary\norganizing committee, says she feels is a hallmark of St. Max\u2019s first decade in\nAurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have all sorts of\ndifferent pathways that come through this school,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have a\nphenomenal technology department, students who go into Community Living, and I\nthink there has been huge inclusiveness. The positive feedback that you hear\n<\/p>\n\n\n

[out in the community]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

keeps us going and keeps us doing the work that we do.\u201d\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another hallmark, the\ncommittee agrees, is the St. Max community\u2019s effort to keep the spirit of St.\nMaximilian Kolbe himself alive within the school community by maintaining close\ncontact with the few people in whom he\u2019s held in living memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the\nAnniversary Committee recently returned from Massachusetts where they met with\nFather Lucjan Krolikowski, who studied in a seminary run by St. Maximilian\nKolbe, the Polish priest who volunteered to die in place of a stranger at\nAuchwitz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father Lucjan helped\ndedicate the school in 2009, and now, 99-years-old, he has offered a message to\nthe community that will be played during the May 10 celebrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was intuitive\nenough and connected with us to the point where he knew what we needed to hear\nas a community moving forward,\u201d said Mr. Parente. \u201cHe offered a message of\nencouragement, for us to continue the great work that we\u2019re doing, a message\nfrom the faith perspective of how we continue to live out the legacy of St.\nMaximilian Kolbe, and he offered us a kind of direction. We lead each other \u2013\nas a Principal, drawing on the vast talents of everybody in the building, all\nthe adults in the building \u2013 but we\u2019re directionless without a course of action\nthat is based in our faith. That is where Father Lucjan and the connection to\nSt. Maximilian Kolbe comes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of schools who\nmaybe aren\u2019t able to say that our saint was alive in the last century and there\nare still people alive who are connected with him. If you know St. Maximilian\nKolbe\u2019s story, it truly is an inspiring story \u2013 catholic, non-Catholic, it is a\nwonderful story of the events that led up to his martyrdom and his sainthood\nand the legacy he has left through Father Lucjan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the history of\nSt. Maximilian Kolbe himself, perhaps it is unsurprising that the school\nbearing his name will place a specific emphasis on their charitable efforts at\nthe time of this milestone. In addition to WE\u2019s Walk for Water, which raises\nfunds for places around the world with limited access to fresh water, there\nwill be a reflection on their efforts to raise $10,000 for the Terry Fox\nFoundation, with a special appearance (most likely via video link) by Fred Fox,\nwho will speak about the Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evening Gallery\nWalk will be a self-guided tour of various classrooms throughout the building\nthat will showcase the work and achievements of St. Max\u2019s many milestones <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea is to get\nas many students back here as possible, regardless of what they went on to do\nwhen they left here, so we can share with our current students the successes\nthat these former students have experienced once they left SMK,\u201d says teacher\nMartina Fasano, head of the newly-formed SMK Alumni Association, which hopes\nthis anniversary will lay the foundation of a strong, interconnected group of\nalumni that will stand the test of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds teacher Dave\nAlmeida: \u201cOur school is great, but I think it is only going to get better with\nthis event. This is one of the ways to get the community motivated; to promote\nthe school being here for 10 years and having a good time at the event is one\nthing, but making people aware that we\u2019ve been here is just the beginning. We\nhave a few more years here!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nmore information on St. Maximilian Kolbe\u2019s 10<\/em>th<\/sup><\/em> Anniversary Celebrations on May\n10, including how to purchase tickets, visit <\/em>www.smk10.ca<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can measure ten years in time, but St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic High School is preparing to mark their first decade in Aurora by measuring their first decade in people and relationships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/2019-04-18-08.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-68e","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 14:01:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}