Believe
Christmas is a season for childlike faith and innocence, when we are invited to believe that anything is possible.
As we grow up, though, the stories so cherished in childhood simply become harder to believe. Most of us grow skeptical about life, including the story of Christmas.
Yet, two thousand years ago, God invited two very different people to believe in Him for the impossible and what happened next changed their lives forever.
What would it take for us to experience the miracle of Christmas in our time and in our lives? What would happen if we could, once again, just Believe?
As we grow up, though, the stories so cherished in childhood simply become harder to believe. Most of us grow skeptical about life, including the story of Christmas.
Yet, two thousand years ago, God invited two very different people to believe in Him for the impossible and what happened next changed their lives forever.
What would it take for us to experience the miracle of Christmas in our time and in our lives? What would happen if we could, once again, just Believe?
New School!
Everyone’s new at Crossroads School
By Jeff Bolichowski
Released in the St. Catharines Standard
September 7, 2011
Suddenly, everyone was the new kid in a new school Tuesday morning.
It left 12-year-old Frank Boese, a Grade 7 student at the new Crossroads School in Virgil, caught between admiration and nervousness. He'd been a student at Virgil School until his student body combined with Colonel John Butler School's to populate the newly-built school on Niagara Stone Rd.
Nervous or not, though, he'd made a couple of new friends by noon. And he'd found plenty to like about his new digs.
"I think it's really great that we have lockers and we have classrooms with smart boards," he said. "They really help us learn."
The newly-built school was not entirely finished when it welcomed students for the first time Tuesday. It's the new home for kids who once attended the nearly 140-year-old Virgil School and the small Butler School, both of which closed in the summer.
Some kids know each other, principal Marian Reimer Friesen said. But with two student bodies together in a new building, everyone got the new-kid experience of finding their way around and learning who's who — even the teachers.
"That moment this morning, when the buses arrived and all my kids stepped off the same bus. My Butler kids, my Virgil kids, the new kids, that was an incredible feeling," she said.
While some are getting lost, she said, that happens on the first day.
The transition, she said, has been rougher on the adults than the kids. "They're so adaptable," she said.
"The new kids say, 'What a great year to be new.' Nobody knows where the washrooms are. Nobody knows where the staff room is. Nobody knows how to get to the main office, so we can all experience it together."
The kids stepped into a school quite different from their former academies. Crossroads, a two-storey school, gleamed Tuesday, its corridors coloured in subdued tans and greens and blues.
Students have lockers now, which Reimer Friesen said has sparked a great deal of excitement. And the building houses a learning commons featuring plush chairs for reading plus books and computers, a hybrid of library and computer lab and discussion space.
It's even got that new-school smell, Reimer Friesen said.
A few things aren't finished. The gymnasium remains a mess of tools, its bare floor still lacking hardwood. And a couple of interior walls near the entrance, intended to eventually house a display case, aren't done yet.
The school holds 410 students, 20 teachers, three early childhood educators and two education assistants.
Grade 1 teacher Vinciane DeBrouwer, who taught for 10 years at Virgil School, said she's fascinated with what else her classroom holds. She was quick to name her favourite aspect of the room: "Storage." Everything, she said, has a place.
She said she spent about a week setting up her classroom. Displayed along the walls and bulletin boards, cutouts of cartoon monkeys introduce kids to months and colours.
The students, she said, got comfortable quickly. For her, it was a bit tougher.
"It's scary," she said. "But it's nice because everyone's in it together."
Grade 7 student Britney Goertz marvelled at the scale of her new school. She said it's a huge change from Butler and its 130 students and eight staff members.
"This is so big," she said. "Such a big change for me.
"I got to kind of get to know a lot of people. You don't know very many of them because Butler was kind of a small school."
The size and amenities are a big change for Reimer Friesen, too. She said she didn't have access to such amenities as principal at Butler and Virgil
"It's incredible to be able to answer the questions that parents have with, 'Yes, we can help you with that.' "
Also on Tuesday, regional council's public works committee voted to recommend lowering the speed limit on Niagara Stone Rd. in front of Crossroads at certain times when kids are around.
If council green-lights that, flashing signals will indicate a speed limit of 40 km/h in front of the school from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
By Jeff Bolichowski
Released in the St. Catharines Standard
September 7, 2011
 |
| My nephew, Rowan, and some of his friends getting off the bus on their first day of classes at the new school. |
It left 12-year-old Frank Boese, a Grade 7 student at the new Crossroads School in Virgil, caught between admiration and nervousness. He'd been a student at Virgil School until his student body combined with Colonel John Butler School's to populate the newly-built school on Niagara Stone Rd.
Nervous or not, though, he'd made a couple of new friends by noon. And he'd found plenty to like about his new digs.
"I think it's really great that we have lockers and we have classrooms with smart boards," he said. "They really help us learn."
The newly-built school was not entirely finished when it welcomed students for the first time Tuesday. It's the new home for kids who once attended the nearly 140-year-old Virgil School and the small Butler School, both of which closed in the summer.
Some kids know each other, principal Marian Reimer Friesen said. But with two student bodies together in a new building, everyone got the new-kid experience of finding their way around and learning who's who — even the teachers.
"That moment this morning, when the buses arrived and all my kids stepped off the same bus. My Butler kids, my Virgil kids, the new kids, that was an incredible feeling," she said.
While some are getting lost, she said, that happens on the first day.
The transition, she said, has been rougher on the adults than the kids. "They're so adaptable," she said.
"The new kids say, 'What a great year to be new.' Nobody knows where the washrooms are. Nobody knows where the staff room is. Nobody knows how to get to the main office, so we can all experience it together."
The kids stepped into a school quite different from their former academies. Crossroads, a two-storey school, gleamed Tuesday, its corridors coloured in subdued tans and greens and blues.
Students have lockers now, which Reimer Friesen said has sparked a great deal of excitement. And the building houses a learning commons featuring plush chairs for reading plus books and computers, a hybrid of library and computer lab and discussion space.
It's even got that new-school smell, Reimer Friesen said.
A few things aren't finished. The gymnasium remains a mess of tools, its bare floor still lacking hardwood. And a couple of interior walls near the entrance, intended to eventually house a display case, aren't done yet.
The school holds 410 students, 20 teachers, three early childhood educators and two education assistants.
Grade 1 teacher Vinciane DeBrouwer, who taught for 10 years at Virgil School, said she's fascinated with what else her classroom holds. She was quick to name her favourite aspect of the room: "Storage." Everything, she said, has a place.
She said she spent about a week setting up her classroom. Displayed along the walls and bulletin boards, cutouts of cartoon monkeys introduce kids to months and colours.
The students, she said, got comfortable quickly. For her, it was a bit tougher.
"It's scary," she said. "But it's nice because everyone's in it together."
Grade 7 student Britney Goertz marvelled at the scale of her new school. She said it's a huge change from Butler and its 130 students and eight staff members.
"This is so big," she said. "Such a big change for me.
"I got to kind of get to know a lot of people. You don't know very many of them because Butler was kind of a small school."
The size and amenities are a big change for Reimer Friesen, too. She said she didn't have access to such amenities as principal at Butler and Virgil
 |
| My friend's daughter busy in her new class at the new local school. |
Also on Tuesday, regional council's public works committee voted to recommend lowering the speed limit on Niagara Stone Rd. in front of Crossroads at certain times when kids are around.
If council green-lights that, flashing signals will indicate a speed limit of 40 km/h in front of the school from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
16-year-old girl dies in ATV crash
By Grant LaFleche, Standard StaffCheryl Beecroft-Penner has faith there was a reason behind the tragedy. One she cannot see or understand, perhaps, but a reason nevertheless.
"We have faith that she is exactly where God needs her to be," she says. "And am I just so thankful, so so thankful, that I had a daughter who was touching people's lives in a positive way."
Beecroft-Penner's daughter, 16-year-old Arlynne Holyer of St. Catharines, died Saturday as a result of an all-terrain vehicle accident near Longlac, Ont. some 320 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.
Beecroft-Penner said she was told the ATV rolled in a ditch while her daughter was on it.
The Eden High School student had spent most of her summer in the north doing what she felt called to do — sharing her faith. On the day she died, her mother said Arlynne was with members of an evangelical ministry handing out tracts to other teenagers to try and get them to come to a bible group.
"She just felt, deep down, that this was what she was meant to do, what God wanted her to do," she said. "We're heartbroken, certainly, and I would not wish this on anyone. But we are trying to see the positive."
Arlynne was a member of youth ministries at two St. Catharines churches, Southridge Community Church on Glenridge Ave. and Central Gospel downtown.
Her mother said the girl was raised in a religious home but like most teenagers, reached the age of minor rebellion. She tried alcohol and was occasionally disrespectful. But it was a period, fortunately, of finite duration.
Arlynne started taking her faith more seriously and soon developed a passion to help others.
"We told her the most important thing was to love Jesus and love others," said Arlynne's stepfather, Pete Penner. "Every family has that one member who just lights it all up. Arlynne was that person for our family."
She went on a youth missionary trip last year to Montreal, but came back disappointed.
"She was a little bummed and when I asked, she told me it was too short. There was so much left to do," Penner said.
So she left in June for a five-week mission with Child Evangelism Ontario in the north.
Her family held a big party for her before she left. Penner said he told her he would have to get up early the next morning to mow the lawn but when he awoke, Arlynne had already done it for him.
"That was her. Always thinking about others first," he said.
Arlynne's father, David Holyer, declined comment Tuesday evening.
A funeral service for Arlynne will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at Central Gospel downtown. Visitation for her will be held Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 8 p.m. at Tallman Funeral Home in Beamsville. Along with her parents, Holyer is also survived by five siblings.
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