News from Vanier - May 19-22

Dear Vanier students and families:

Good and loving God-
We thank you for the opportunity, short though it may have been, to play a part in the lives of our students and our new graduates. We are grateful for your guidance and love as we shared in this important work.

Please bless and guide our Class of 2020 as they reach this end, and as they chart new beginnings. May what they have learned by being here with us allow them to truly be people of service to others.  May what we have learned from them enable us to be the same.

Please help them to use all that they have learned here to make the world a better place - to serve others in true solidarity and kinship - to seek ways to help the poor, the marginalized, and those who are suffering - and to always seek the greater good.

We know that some of them will experience pain and hardship, and we know that some of them already have, and we ask you to grant them solace and strength.

Finally, Father, we thank you for giving us the opportunity to build our community with these young men and women while they are here. Though they are leaving our school, we know that they will always be with us as part of the Vanier family, and we ask that the bonds that have been created here remain strong despite any distance.

We ask all of this in your name, and in the name of your Son, Jesus. Amen.

This week was originally scheduled to include celebrations of our Class of 2020 with a graduation Mass, cap and gown ceremony, prom, and drug- and alcohol-free after-grad event.  We are very sad that these events will not occur as scheduled and that this class will be denied these time-honoured traditions.  Please pray for them as their secondary school careers close in this most unusual of ways.

We have currently postponed our cap & gown ceremony until Wednesday, August 26, if the public-health guidelines allow us to gather then.  This weekend, we will be dispatching photographers to take a socially-distanced family photograph for each member of the Class of 2020 as a tribute to their accomplishments in the time of Covid-19.
 
Catholic Schools of Whitehorse Live-streamed Mass – May 20
Traditionally, our Class of 2020 weekend would have started with a Graduation Mass celebrated by the Bishop. Having Mass said in one’s honour is usually reserved for very special occasions and we are grateful for the Diocese’s continued support.

The last few years, we have brought all students from the Catholic Schools together in May to celebrate Mass together. This year, we will replace this event with a live-streamed Mass on Facebook. In particular, we will feature students from kindergarten, Grade 7, and Grade 12 to focus on the transitions they have all made or will make this year. We will also feature the “passing of the lamp” from a Grade 12 student to a Grade 11 student – something we usually do at our Graduation Mass.

The link to the live-streamed Mass will be on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Whitehorse’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RomanCatholicDioceseofWhitehorse/

Download program to follow along with the Mass here!

Next year

The Government of Yukon with the Chief Medical Officer of Health released a plan for a phased approach to relaxing the restrictions that have been imposed due to the pandemic.  This plan mentions that schools will be starting to plan what the return to school in August might look like.

We understand the strong desire to return to “normal” as soon as possible.  However, the safety of the most vulnerable and marginalized in our territory needs to be the top priority.  This might mean that some restrictions may be left in place that will impact how school is delivered in the fall.  We commit to keeping you as informed as possible about this process and how it may affect families.

We appreciate the continued patience and understanding of all our students and families as we develop these plans.
 
Covid-19 Community Cookbook
We’ve noticed that we have been able to spend more time cooking these days! As a legacy project to mark these eventful times, we would like students, families, and staff to contribute a recipe to the Vanier Covid-19 Community Cookbook.

Choose your favourite recipe, snap a photo of it if you have one, and submit the recipe, instructions, notes, and the photo in The Hallway in Google Classroom. We’ll publish and distribute a digital cookbook nearer to the end of the year.
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As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, concerns, or feedback.
 
Sincerely,
Ryan Sikkes, principal and Jeanette Gallant, vice principal