Church In The City And CountryOn May 17, St. Helen…
May 23, 2013

Church In The City And CountryOn May 17, St. Helen School in Newbury Township and St. Francis School in Cleveland came together for their annual…

Church In The City And Country
On May 17, St. Helen School in Newbury Township and St. Francis School in Cleveland came together for their annual partnership celebration. For 15 years, the partnership has been strong as teachers help children share curriculum, friendship, field trips and classroom-to-classroom exchanges. There have even been exchanges using long distance learning connections.
Over the past two years, St. Francis School has taken a field trip to St. Helen School, both times on beautiful spring days in May. The day begins with a celebration of the liturgy led by Bishop Roger Gries, auxiliary bishop of Cleveland, and Fr. Jay McPhillips, pastor of St. Helen Church.
The Mass incorporates gospel music with music led by both groups. During Mass, Bishop Roger encouraged the children to turn to God and follow his directions, as if they were following a GPS (God’s Positioning System) and to remember that “God is good, all the time.”
The second part of the day was a homemade lunch served by Cindy Wozniak and Tony Pona of Aladdin Food Service along with a team of St. Helen moms and grandmothers. Children sat alongside their prayer partners to share lunch and conversation. Following lunch, each grade level met in a specific section of the building to share fun with games, stories and crafts. It was the best day ever, one that the entire St. Helen School community looks forward to each year.
One fourth-grader told his teacher, “Those kids are just like us!”
Lessons learned from shared experiences make it all worthwhile and give hope for the future. As the school day ended, St. Francis students boarded their Precious Cargo buses with St. Helen seventh-graders waving them off and looking forward to Church in the City and Country day in 2014.