Here Comes the Class of 2013!

There is nothing more exciting than the arrival of a new freshman class. Today 51 students arrived at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel High School to meet their teachers and each other. Though they were nervous and some were shy, most of them were very enthusiastic and positive.
About 20 of the older students planned the Orientation Day. They are the Campus Ministry Team. They have already experienced an overnight retreat in late July and a Leadership Retreat last week. At those events they focused on their own growing leadership and responsibilities as well as planned for the arrival of the freshmen.
Our day stated with "get to know you" activities which were fun for everyone. The older students took the new kids on a tour of the campus (Remember how some of you always said there was a swimming pool on the third floor???) and then delivered them to homeroom. There the freshmen struggled with the infamous lockers and the challenging combinations. Most of them were successful! Mrs. Fannon (still fighting against cancer) has already convinced her 9-B ers that they are the best homeroom ever!
After homeroom, we had lunch provided by Jim Moore, our new cafeteria guru. Wow! Can he cook!!! He served the best burgers around and everyone seemed happy with the lunch. Wait until they see the great menus for the year. The next session after lunch was a "talk" about handbook rules and uniforms etc. by Mike Naunton and Elaine Hartnett, the assistant principals. We ended the day in the chapel with a prayer service which the Campus Ministry Team planned. We ended with our daily mantra, "Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Pray for us!" With that shared prayer another group of students joined our little community!
It was a great day and I think what made it wonderful was not only meeting our new students (It is always a surprise to see how young they are and to sense how much they want to be older!) but also to see our older students volunteer their time to share their feelings about the school. One student said today, "You are going to love it here!" I hope that becomes true for every one of our new freshmen! It is also a joy to see how many of the upper level teachers came to meet the new students and say hello and welcome. Our little school remains a place of hospitality and welcome. Let's hope God blesses our new freshmen and that we have many more happy days with them!