Shutter to Think: A week devoted to faithful fun

Readers of the this publication may have noticed lots of Catholic Schools Week coverage this week of the four grade schools in the Sauk Valley. As someone who did 12 years at St. Andrew and Newman, I don’t remember much about the activities other than the all-school’s mass held at Newman at the end of the week, which also led to a half day off.

All kidding aside, I did remember this week how cool the mass was bringing in students ... from as far away as – gasp! – Dixon.

Each of the schools had a full slate of activities planned throughout the week, and I was able to make one event at each of the schools. Here’s what I took away from what I was able to attend:

St. Anne students spent a few hours at Dixon Park District’s The Facility to run and jump and play and just carry on like kids should. Principal Talarie Bilharz said there was an idea to set up different stations that groups would move through during the time. That idea was quickly quashed instead for a frenzied free-for-all of fun, which was capped off by a spirited basketball game of P-I-G played by several staff members.

St. Mary in Dixon had its first scavenger hunt. Older and younger students teamed up to solve clues that took them charging through the hallways to meet their required tasks. More than once, I had to dive out of the line of stampeding students. My survival was recognized with a brownie gifted to me by Principal Jean Spohn that was unbelievably delicious. Thank you so much!

The St. Andrew event combined both faith and activity, as students of all grade levels combined together at stations where they first read and learned about a specific Catholic saint, before acting on a physical activity for one minute. Those included jump rope, crab walk and push-ups, all kinds of different actions that make one long for the stamina of the grade schooler.

At St. Mary in Sterling, in recognition of both National Day of Play and Catholic Schools Week, students from Newman Central Catholic High School were brought in simply to participate in “unfettered” play with the kids at the school. It was sweet to watch as they played with Lego toys, board games and Twister. Two kindergartners recruited me for a game in which I had to guess the name of a hand-drawn character on a piece of poster board. My guess? Blueberry. I was told that I was nowhere near correct. (The answer was “Fairy god hamster.” How embarrassing.)

I guess it’s back to school for me.

• Follow Alex T. Paschal on Instagram @svmphotogs or message him at apaschal@shawmedia.com.