Dear Parents,

November is coming to an end and Thanksgiving is just days away.  As always, here at Hoboken Catholic Academy, we have much to be thankful for!  Thank you for all that you do to make our school the special place it is for our children.  Our Student Council has concluded the Christmas Phone Cards For Troops program and I am thrilled to tell you that thanks to your generosity, we have sent a check for $1,580 to the USO in support of their Phone Home Program.  In addition, the Campus Ministry Food and Paper Goods Drive was likewise a tremendous success.  Your donations covered more than half of the stage and we were able to support the soup kitchen at St. Francis Church, the St. Matthew Trinity Lunchtime Ministry and the Hoboken Community Center.  All three local charities serve the homeless and low income families in Hoboken and all were blown away by your generosity!  Thank you for helping our students learn the valuable lesson of helping those less fortunate than ourselves.

There was some excitement here today as our PreK classes enjoyed their annual Thanksgiving feast.  And what a feast it was!  Thanks to our amazing class moms and everyone who contributed to the feast.  The children were great and truly enjoyed their mid-morning feast as they concluded learning about this most American of all of our holidays.

The excitement continued this afternoon when a film crew commissioned by the Archdiocese of Newark stopped by to shoot some footage for a promotional video they are putting together to highlight our Catholic Schools.  They filmed students at several levels in various activities ranging from computer and math class to lunch and recess.  The video will appear on the Archdiocesan website when it is completed.  Naturally, only students with permission to be photographed were included in the footage.  As soon as I learn when the video will be posted, I will let you know.  Our school was one of only four schools to be included on the video!

Congratulations to all of our volleyball teams for another amazing year.  All four teams played hard and had fun.  Three of our teams, our seventh grade varsity team and both of our JV teams played in their respective championship games.  Our JV teams placed first and second and our varsity team won their championship as well!  Thanks to coaches Mrs. Garlick and Mrs. Griesbauer for helping the girls to love the sport and to so well in the process.

Basketball practice has begun and games will begin shortly.  There will be a basketball parent meeting on Wednesday, December 4^th at 8:00 in the gym.  The Home and School Association meeting at 7:00 that night will be in the science lab, room 203.

There will be a Thanksgiving Prayer Service in the gym at 8:15 Wednesday morning following student arrival.  Parents are invited to attend.  Wednesday will also be a $2.00 Thanksgiving Dress Down Day for students and staff.

Finally, on behalf of everyone who has the good fortune to work with your beautiful children at HCA each day, please accept my thanks and best wishes for a and blessed Thanksgiving and a wonderful, long weekend.

God Bless you all.

Sincerely,

Matthew McGrath