Sunday, November 22, 2009

Usborne Books e-show

Dear Friends of Holy Cross, Please take a few minutes to read the following email from long time Holy Cross supporter, Jean Willard. Jean and her husband John along with many friends from St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Durham, NC have brought numerous mission teams to the school. Jean is doing a fund raiser for the school which will help us get wonderful library books. Now you can do your Christmas shopping AND support Holy Cross at the same time!!! Many thanks and blessings, francis
Greetings,
I'm here to help you with your Christmas shopping this year! I am hosting an e-show of Usborne Books. In hosting this e-show, I will receive free books. The $$ amount sold determines the number of free books. All free books received from this e-show will go to the library at Holy Cross Anglican School in San Pedro Belize. Our church has taken mission teams to Belize for the past 9 years and has spent the last 3 years helping build Holy Cross. We have watched it grow from 3 classrooms in a mangrove swamp with 62 students to 15 classrooms and 525 students from K-8th grade. We return in February 2010 with 25 team members and hopefully lots of new books!! The annual trip is one of the highlights of our year!

Never heard of Usborne Books? They are high quality, award winning books. They have earned the Learning Magazine Teachers' Choice Award, Dr. Toy's 100 Best Child Products Award, Parent's Choice Gold Award and Mom's Choice Award and more. Their 1300+ book selection ranges from baby board books through High School reference books. They have readers, fiction, puzzle stories, finger puppets, maze books, jigsaw puzzles, hands-on activity books and kits and much more. The sales representative for this e-show is my daughter, Jill Baird. When we went to visit them in Hawaii this past September, I got to help host her first sale. She had gotten a box of sample books and John and I spent hours and hours reading those books to our grandsons. They couldn't get enough of them! We later saw them at Volcanos National Park in the gift shop and have since found them at other National Parks we have visited. We were VERY impressed with the quality of the books, and I am very picky about children's books!!
Please take a minute and visit the website for this e-show and check it out! They're wonderful gift books for all children. And they'll be delivered right to your door! Or, you can do a separate order for each family and have it delivered to their door! Can't beat one stop shopping! If you're not sure what they would like, just send them the e-show site and ask them to make up a wish list for you!
If you have questions, please send me an email at willarjm@mindspring.com or give me a call at 919-471-0816. To learn more about Holy Cross Anglican School, check out their website and Julie's blog who is volunteering for 2 months at the school and writing about her experiences. Feel free to pass this info on to friends! The more the merrier!
Thanks for your support of this e-show!!
:-) Jean

Posted by Holy Cross Anglican School at 10:16 AM | 0 comments  
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Halloween Fair - 2009


Dear Friends, I just wanted to share some 'Happy Halloween' photos from the school FUNdraising Fair held this past Friday. The kids had a wonderful day and the school raised $1,608.50US for the Feeding Program - that's a ton of quarters!! Many thanks to the teachers, parents and to local businesses who made generous donations: Casa Pan Dulce ( a delicious cake!); Quality Poultry (a great price on the chicken we bar-b-qued!); Martin McKoy (toe-tapping music and the sound system!) and Daniel Nunez (soft drinks!).

Please join in the fun of Holy Cross by making your contribution today!! Checks may be sent to:

Holy Cross Anglican School
San Pedro TownAmbergris Caye, Belize

And, please check out the new Holy Cross Foundation Board web site and the School web site. Many thanks for your prayers and continuing support. It truly takes all of us working together to make the miracle of Holy Cross a reality for 500+ children!!
Blessings, Francis









Posted by Holy Cross Anglican School at 9:46 AM | 0 comments  
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Friday, November 13, 2009

Happy Friday the 13th

Dear Friends,

Happy Friday the 13th! We’re having a wonderful day here at Holy Cross Anglican School. The sun is shining after many days of rain, the sounds of learning are quietly (or not so quietly!) echoing around the school and construction has begun on our incredible state of the art composting toilet system. Thanks to a generous grant from the Episcopal Church Women, by September 2010 we will have two girls’ bathrooms and two boys’ bathrooms, 24 toilets, 10 urinals, 4 staff bathrooms and the ‘greenest’ sewer waste disposal system available!!!! I never thought I could get so excited about toilets but providing bathroom breaks for 500+ students and 29 staff with only 6 toilets and 3 urinals is more complicated than rocket science.

I know you each rejoice with us as the school blooms and grows. And I know most of you could recite the critical needs we have here at Holy Cross from memory….feeding program, land fill, school supplies, shoes, uniforms, first aid, electricity for the computer lab, water bills (most recent was for $850US), medical bills, eye glasses and the list goes on and on. And, most of you know I have a thousand and one ways to ask for your financial contributions. Now I have one thousand and TWO ways…my birthday, the BIG 60, will be on November 18th, 2009. (I can hear you gasping in shock since I don’t look a day over 59 – smile.) Anyway, a few folks have asked what I want for my birthday. That’s an easy question to answer!

If the Spirit should move you to make a donation to Holy Cross Anglican School in honor of my big event then God Bless You! Of course I want your birthday prayers too! As always, checks should be made payable to: Holy Cross Anglican School and sent to:

Holy Cross Anglican School
San Pedro Town
Ambergris Caye, Belize

Many thanks and blessings, Francis, The Birthday Girl!!

Please take a moment to read Volunteering in Belize part 2. a great blog done by one of our volunteers Julie.

Posted by Holy Cross Anglican School at 7:12 PM | 0 comments  
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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Holy Cross Staff at Work

Hard working staff at the Halloween Fair.....Mr. Freddy and Mr. Jason preparing the delicious bar-b-que, Vernon trying to maintain order at the Haunted House and me decorating trick or treat bags and handing out candy! You can see more Halloween on Julie's Volunteering in Belize part 2 blog.









Posted by Holy Cross Anglican School at 3:25 PM | 0 comments  
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Monday, October 19, 2009

Good News - Miss Francis

Dear Friends of Holy Cross, I love sharing good news and we've been blessed with lots of wonderful happenings recently. No, we haven't been adopted by Oprah or Bill Gates so we still need your financial contributions! But, even in the midst of financial need, God continues to shower us with blessings - smile.

Harvest Sunday - Yesterday was our third Harvest Celebration and it was amazing! Over six hundred students and their families gathered at the San Pedro High School Nunez auditorium to worship and thank God for His many gifts. Harvest here in Belize is similar to Thanksgiving in the States - a time of giving thanks and sharing. We asked all our students to bring an item(s) for the school Feeding Program - the pictures tell the story. What an incredible outpouring of little bags of rice, flour and sugar; cans of evaporated milk; spaghetti noodles; salt; milk powder; tomato paste; boxes of macaroni, etc - wow! Each class presented a Harvest item....."Bringing in the Sheaves", "We Plow the Field and Scatter", "They Will Know We Are Christians", more songs and poems and tears in my eyes. The teachers did a beautiful job with decorations, Fr. Perez was able to come from Belize City to conduct the service (thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Leslie, General Manager of Anglican Schools), one mother donated a cake which raised $125US in a silent auction and God was mightily thanked!

Electric Bill was paid! Many thanks to the members of the Belize Mission Project for their wonderful financial donations which enabled the School to pay that hideous electric bill (over $2,000US). The lights will stay on - yea! For seventeen years, Dr. Frank Whipps has brought a group of dentists and support personnel to Belize. They staff free clinics all over the country, including here in San Pedro. Several years ago some of their members visited Holy Cross and informally 'adopted' the school as part of their outreach program. I was able to share dinner with these lovely folks from all across the US and gratefully received their contributions. Thank you Belize Mission Project!!! (If you are interested in additional information, please check out their web site at Belize Mission Project.

New Shoes! Thanks to FootLocker, the efforts of Aylson Kanning and the connections made by Belize Mission Project, Holy Cross received almost fifty pairs of beautiful new shoes! There will be lots of 'happy feet' in the school just as soon as we can distribute the shoes to those in need - four pairs have already found new homes - smile. The donation came at a perfect time as the weather has turned cool and rainy. Before school started we gave out over three hundred pairs of shoes so our supply was really low. Thank you FootLocker, Aylson and BMP!!!

Holy Cross Foundation Wed Page! Last year almost twenty volunteers who worked at Holy Cross from seven different States got together and formed a Foundation. The goal of the Foundation is to benefit Holy Cross Anglican School through increasing awareness, raising funds and seeking grants on behalf of the school. Several of these folks have been hard at work getting a web site going and it is now up!!! Check out this link which is open for tax deductible donations via credit card right now: Multiply Communications.


And, please check out the web page: Holy Cross Education Foundation. Many thanks to Brian, Tim, John and Pat!!

Cursillo! Many of you may be familiar with Cursillo (also known as Walk to Emmaus, Tres Dias, similar to Chiros and Happening) which is a Christ-centered, three day retreat. Here in Belize, the Anglican Diocese holds a Cursillo Weekend every other year. Just a few weeks ago twelve members of the school staff attended the Weekend. Vernon and I served on Team along with the Minister of Education, Patrick Faber. It was a glorious three days which nourished everyone's faith and brought us all closer to God and each other. I can see the wonderful effects of the Weekend already!

New Education Officer! San Pedro/Caye Caulker finally received our very own Education Officer, Ms. Candy Armstrong. She will be the liaison between all the local schools and the Ministry of Education and also serve as a valuable resource . With several public schools to choose from, where do you think she enrolled her three children?!? Holy Cross Anglican School is pleased (and very proud!) that she entrusted the education of her children to us!

Holy Cross placed 29th in the Nation! At a meeting on Friday with the District Education Officer, we learned that Holy Cross Anglican School placed 29th in the nation in overall scores on the mandatory Primary School Exams. This examination is given to all students at the end of Standard VI (eighth grade). There are 292 primary school in Belize so 29th is pretty good - especially when we take into account that we only had most of our students for one or two years. Yea, Holy Cross!

I do love sharing good news and you are the very folks who make the good news happen!! Please continue to uphold us in your prayers and send your much needed contribution to:

Holy Cross Anglican School
San Pedro Town
Ambergris Caye, Belize

Many thanks and blessings, Francis

Posted by Holy Cross Anglican School at 11:17 AM | 0 comments  
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Industrial Stove Donation

Today Holy Cross Celebrated the donation of a new industrial stove with a ribbon cutting ceremony followed by lunch prepared by Chef Victor Nal of Sunset Grill.

Preparing and serving breakfast a fruit snack and lunch daily for 500 kids is no small feat - even the busiest restaurant in town does not serve that many daily let alone 5 days a week. Holy Cross School and kitchen staff headed by Miss Rosalia is very grateful for Chef Victor's training help in the kitchen.

Chef Victor is a frequent volunteer with the Feeding Program at the School and was recently selected Belize Chef of the year for 2009.

The stove is a gift from Tony and Ginger Rogers of Texas who volunteered at Holy Cross this past summer. Ginger was helping with literacy and remedial reading and Tony with building. They asked the school what was needed most and they went back home and raised the money for an industrial stove.

Ginger and Tony got the stove got to Amarillo Texas to the Word at Work Ministry to Pastor Tim Tam. Transportation from Texas to San Pedro was generously provided by Belize Natural Energy Trust headquartered in Belmopan. Sterling Vorus of Island Ferry stepped up and voluntered to get the stove from Belize City to San Pedro.

Among the people who came out to celebrate were officials Sylvia Baumgart Laasner and Deborah Sewell from BNET were.

Miss Roselia and Chef Victor - Stove donated by Ginger and Tony Rogers

Stove donated by Ginger and Tony Rogers

Touring the school

Lunch time

Checking out the library

Ribbon cutting ceremony

Speeches and thank yous

Watching the ribbon cutting ceremony

Speeches and thank yous

Ribbon cutting

3 cheers for a great new stove and all who helped get it here and install it.

Cafeteria annex

Lunch time

Lunch prepared by Chef Victor

Good words for kids to read daily

The writing is on the wall

I agree with that 100%

Posted by Holy Cross Anglican School at 2:30 PM | 0 comments  
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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

501c3 = Tax Deductable Contributions

Dear Friends of Holy Cross, The Holy Cross Education Foundation has been established as a 501c3!!!!!!! Now you can make your TAX DEDUCTIBLE contributions to that organization.

Please send your check made payable to:
Holy Cross Education Foundation and mail to:
Holy Cross Educational Foundation7550 Corporate Way, Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Your donation is tax deductible. The federal tax ID is 27-0626278.

Many, many thanks to Brian Ostenso and the folks at Stephen's Episcopal Church in Edina, MN who labored long and hard to make this happen. Of course you can continue to send donations straight to Holy Cross Anglican School, San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, Belize. The only difference is that contributions to the Foundation are tax deductible.

Blessings, Francis

Posted by Holy Cross Anglican School at 9:41 AM | 0 comments  
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