TOGETHER

Our annual ALL-SCHOOL SERVICE DAY was held on November 4. Students, faculty, and staff spent the morning flagging veteran gravesites at St. Michael’s and Gate of Heaven Cemeteries, helping clean the community garden at Holy Name Parish, tending to leaves and yard work of neighbors and veterans living in our East Forest Park neighborhood, volunteering at St. Michael’s Academy, working on an art project for veterans and tidying up at Dryden School and around our own campus. A very busy but rewarding morning for all.

We were blessed to welcome veterans to campus on VETERANS DAY to honor their service to our country. Our students, faculty, and staff invited veterans (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends) to join us for an appreciation lunch followed by a prayer service.

Overall, talking and conversing with Abraham helped me gauge the fact that the Holocaust wasn’t just some event from the past, it is still within recent memory and there are people like him to prove it. He is in a sense living history. Truly a treasure that I will never forget for the rest of my life.”

BRANDEN ATIMBO ’26

Local HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR Abraham Rodstein visited the freshman class for a Q&A session on his experiences growing up in Lithuania, being held in a Nazi concentration camp as a teenager, and ultimately immigrating to the United States after liberation. The assembly dovetailed with the freshman summer reading book, Ashes in the Snow, which chronicles the life of a Lithuanian girl growing up during World War II.

Students in Mrs. Perreault’s Community and Civic Engagement class were thrilled to welcome Tyler Bresse and Pippa from the MASSACHUSETTS RESCUE AND RECOVERY K-9 UNIT. MARK9 is a charitable, non-profit 501(c) (3) volunteer search and rescue unit dedicated to the training of search and rescue dogs, handlers, and support personnel in order to provide professional and highly-skilled search and rescue resources during an emergency response event.

A big thank you to the Cardinals who visited with our partner schools to read to younger students on READ ACROSS AMERICA DAY! Pictured is Hannah Keeney ’24 at St. Mary’s Academy in Longmeadow.

22 members of the SPECIAL OLYMPICS SUPPORT CLUB volunteered at Bowlero in Chicopee for the Hampden/ Hampshire County Local Bowling Qualifier. Students kept score, assisted bowlers, and cheered the athletes on. Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to more than 4.4 million athletes in 170 countries. Well done!

Congratulations to the Class of 2023 on winning the first ever PFPS POWDERPUFF CHAMPIONSHIP!

A huge thank you to Student Government for bringing this fun new tradition to Pope Francis Prep and to everyone who braved the cold to cheer for our senior and junior girls!

Thank you to all of our PFPS GRANDPARENTS who joined us for our Grandparents Day celebration. We had 239 grandparents join us this year. Thank you to all who helped make these two very special days possible!

SENATOR ERIC LESSER spoke to the students in Mrs. Perreault’s Community Engagement class. He spoke about the impact of the east-west rail line on the community and also explained the different roles of government and how laws are made.

Sophia Bruso ’24 proudly presented Christina’s House with a check for $1,000 raised through the CARDINAL CAFE Christina’s House provides shelter and education for women and children in the Springfield area. Well done, Cardinal Cafe!

It was a lot of fun to witness the competitive, yet collaborative, nature of the GRIT ’N WIT course. Teamwork was critical to successfully completing the course.

Following many weeks of intense preparation, The Pope Francis Players performed Play On!

Once again, art students teamed up with The MEMORY PROJECT to create portraits of children from Nigeria. The beautiful portraits were mailed to the children and a video of the children excitedly receiving them was shared with our community.

Portrait by Luna Pham ’23.