Fr. Cip and Miss Medoff wish to give a huge thank you to all those who gave of their time, talent, and resources to help make Service Day possible.  127 students went out all over the area from Westchester, New York to Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport, Trumbull, Stratford, and Fairfield to model and showcase with pride the Notre Dame motto of being "Imitators of Christ." Students volunteered at soup kitchens, food pantries, schools, nursing homes, hospitals, and churches to help those from young to old, and helped people who were lonely, sick, and poor to remember that students at Notre Dame care.  We would especially like to thank the 20 adult volunteers who also helped: Mrs. Marianne Cassidy, Mrs. Kathy Stefanatos, Mrs. Jeanine Pagliaro, Mrs. Joanne Purcell, Mrs. Debbie Berard, Mrs. Sheila Russo, Mrs. Lee Anne Boyle, Mrs. Dorrine Sopko, Mrs. White, Mrs. Murphy, Mrs. Bahr, and Ms. Jessica Marzik, as well as Notre Dame staff, including some retired teachers: Denise Ayala, Barbara Ezepchick, Theresa Marzik, Jean Baranyar, Gaetano Marra, Judy Waldeyer, and Kay Kenney.

  

A special thank you also goes out to Mr. Peter Philipp and his religion classes who made beautiful valentines that students were able to distribute at Lord Chamberlain Nursing Home. 

  

Click here to view the list of students who generously donated their time to these organizations.    

As part of Notre Dame's four year commitment to academic success, guidance counselor Mr. Gaetano Marra is currently meeting with freshmen and their parents. These meetings include a discussion of academic progress to date and the development of a plan to ensure academic, extra-curricular and social success over the next three years at Notre Dame. If you have not yet scheduled a meeting and would like to do so, please contact Mr. Marra at marra@notredame.org.

On February 9, Father Cip and Miss Medoff accompanied a group of students for a dinner and movie night.  The film viewed was The Rite.  Students who attended were  Geissy Bitencourt '12, Dianne Gutierrez '11, Mary Boyle '12, Jose Arvelo '14, Josh Hamel '11, Cooper Demchek '14, Garrett Gintoli '14, and John Notarfrancesco '14.

On Tuesday, February 15, the Senior AP Humanities class departed modern times for a few hours and transformed their classroom into a Medieval Fair.  Each student dressed authentically as a person of the period and presented some in-depth research on either the person represented or some feature common to the Middle Ages.  Honored presenters included Chaucer, Morgan la Fey,  Robin Hood, Sir Lancelot, members of the farrier's and the candlemaker's guilds, and esteemed experts on medieval castles, mythological creatures, and typical commoner's entertainment.   

The ND French Honor Society honored Our Lady of Lourdes [Notre Dame de Lourdes] in the ND chapel on her feast day, February 11.  The mass was presented in French. Readers included: Mary Boyle '12, Dianne Gutierrez '11, Mary Kate Vicenzi '12, Meghan Cassidy '12, David Malvicini '12, and Geissy Bitencourt '12. Choir members included:  Dr. Mary Callaghan on guitar, Allison Rohr '13, Dan Murphy '13, and Amy Pagliaro '13. The mass was celebrated by Fr. Cipriani.

 

Our Lady of Lourdes (Bernadette Soubiroux) was a young child when the Immaculate Conception appeared to her as a vision. After following the words of the Virgin Mary, the church recognized the apparition to be true.  Four years later, the bishop of the diocese declared the faithful "justified in believing the reality of the apparition."  Our lady of Lourdes is credited with the discovery of a blessed spring in Massabielle, France, the building of a basilica at the site of the apparitions, and 66 healings.  Pilgrims today visit the site to receive her blessings and to be healed of illness.