Dear Friends and Supporters, Please join me in a short walk down memory lane...
Four years ago, almost to the day, the students of Holy Cross participated in their first ever Children's Rally in celebration of Belize's Independence. There were about 40 children in 2006 - they sang and marched with great enthusiasm and made this new school's presence known.
Yesterday was Children's Rally 2010 and I was overwhelmed with the changes in just four short years. With tears in my eyes, I looked down the streets of San Pedro and saw hundreds of Holy Cross students, dressed in red, white and blue, proudly waving the flag of Belize, marching with great enthusiasm and making a real impact in the life of San Mateo, Ambergris Caye and the nation of Belize. I could easily imagine future teachers, doctors, policemen, office workers, computer technicians, politicians and maybe even a prime minister in the assembled crowd of students. WOW!!!
And just how did this giant leap forward come about? Through your efforts, that's how!! You have prayed, come on mission teams and built this school; sent school supplies, tons of books and shoes; donated money, supported the Feeding Program and underwritten scholarships; sent computers, reams of copy paper and cartridges; paid for toilets, land fill and electricity; brought down tools, dental equipment, toothbrushes and toothpaste. You have created Holy Cross Anglican School and turned a swampy garbage dump into a safe and loving place where children learn, grow, dream and blossom.
I am so proud of what God and all of us working together have accomplished - smile. I pray that you will continue to generously support and bless this tiny corner of God's kingdom. In spite of everything we've done, there is always more to do.....our students arrive daily to school hungry, in need of shoes,school supplies and dental care; computers require constant upkeep, electricity and supplies; more land fill is urgently needed so we can start construction on the playground and much needed pre-school; books wear out, toilets need repair and tools break. And right now, the school must build a water garden - approximate cost of $20,000US - to complete the composting toilet facility!!! I pray that you will continue the good work that Christ has begun in and through you here at Holy Cross. Please take a moment today and send a donation to:
Holy Cross Anglican School
San Pedro Town
Ambergris Caye, Belize
or make a credit card payment at www.hcefoundation.org
or mail to:
Holy Cross Education Foundation
7550 Corporate Way
Eden Prairie, MN 55436-2045
PS: Tropical Storm Karl passed by on Wednesday and all we got was tons of rain. Thanks be to God!!! School was surrounded by about a foot and a half of water (see attached photos). Could have been much worse but our hurricane season has just begun (September and October). Say prayers.
Love and hugs from the staff and students of Holy Cross Anglican School - smile.
Support Holy Cross Anglican School in San Pedro www.holycrossbelize.org
And just how did this giant leap forward come about? Through your efforts, that's how!! You have prayed, come on mission teams and built this school; sent school supplies, tons of books and shoes; donated money, supported the Feeding Program and underwritten scholarships; sent computers, reams of copy paper and cartridges; paid for toilets, land fill and electricity; brought down tools, dental equipment, toothbrushes and toothpaste. You have created Holy Cross Anglican School and turned a swampy garbage dump into a safe and loving place where children learn, grow, dream and blossom.
I am so proud of what God and all of us working together have accomplished - smile. I pray that you will continue to generously support and bless this tiny corner of God's kingdom. In spite of everything we've done, there is always more to do.....our students arrive daily to school hungry, in need of shoes,school supplies and dental care; computers require constant upkeep, electricity and supplies; more land fill is urgently needed so we can start construction on the playground and much needed pre-school; books wear out, toilets need repair and tools break. And right now, the school must build a water garden - approximate cost of $20,000US - to complete the composting toilet facility!!! I pray that you will continue the good work that Christ has begun in and through you here at Holy Cross. Please take a moment today and send a donation to:
Holy Cross Anglican School
San Pedro Town
Ambergris Caye, Belize
or make a credit card payment at www.hcefoundation.org
or mail to:
Holy Cross Education Foundation
7550 Corporate Way
Eden Prairie, MN 55436-2045
PS: Tropical Storm Karl passed by on Wednesday and all we got was tons of rain. Thanks be to God!!! School was surrounded by about a foot and a half of water (see attached photos). Could have been much worse but our hurricane season has just begun (September and October). Say prayers.
Love and hugs from the staff and students of Holy Cross Anglican School - smile.
Support Holy Cross Anglican School in San Pedro www.holycrossbelize.org
September 4, 2010
Dear Friends, Holy Cross Anglican School is four years old today!!! These past four years have certainly flown by in a whirlwind of activity bringing us to this milestone we are proudly celebrating. And, what a celebration we had on Friday - please see attached photos. The students made birthday cards, we gathered together to sing 'Happy Birthday', shared wonderful cupcakes and then everyone received a very special present. Thanks to the incredible folks at Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas each student (and teacher) received an age appropriate copy of the Bible for their very own - wow! Thank you Southcrest!!
School officially started on Wednesday, September 1st and everything went smoothly as students and teachers got down to the important work of learning. The school was peaceful and the students orderly - nothing short of a miracle! I'm sure this was due in large part to the fact so many teachers returned along with Mrs. Grace Williams, Principal and Mrs. Olivia Tasher, Vice-Principal. The staff just keeps getting better and better thanks to the guidance of our General Manager, Mrs. Marlene Leslie. Not only were the staff and students 'looking good', but thanks to the many volunteers who labored long and hard this summer, Holy Cross was also looking 'mighty fine' - smile.
Speaking of 'mighty fine'.....our new state-of -the-art composting toilet facility is AWESOME!!! Thanks be to God, we were able to get half of the facility up and running for the first day of school. We are currently awaiting the additional toilets which are sitting in Customs right now. Hopefully they will be delivered soon (say lots of prayers!). So far everything is working perfectly. Many thanks to the Episcopal Church Women for providing a $42,000US grant to get this project underway. We only recently found out that we'll need to build a water garden for the facility . I'm not exactly sure what that is (ask Vernon) but I do know it will cost an additional $20,000US. If you would like to contribute to the health and welfare of our children and the environment, we really need your donations!
As we celebrate a new school year, the birthday of Holy Cross, fabulous bathrooms AND Belize Independence Day - on September 21st the nation will be 29 years old - we also celebrate our friends and supporters all over the world. You have each contributed in some way to turn a desperate need for a primary school into an amazing reality. Thank you for caring and for sharing your time, talents and treasure. Please continue your support for the Feeding Program, scholarships, dental clinic, school supplies and materials. All children deserve the chance to dream big dreams. With your support and love, dreams will continue to be born and come true at Holy Cross Anglican School. Blessings, Francis
Tax deductible donations can be made through The Holy Cross Education Foundation www.hcefoundation.org
or by mail to: Holy Cross Education Foundation
7550 Corporate Way
Eden Prairie, MN 55436-2045
Contributions may also be sent directly to the School:
Holy Cross Anglican SchoolSan Pedro TownAmbergris CayeBelize
Support Holy Cross Anglican School in San Pedro http://www.holycrossbelize.org/
Dear Friends, Holy Cross Anglican School is four years old today!!! These past four years have certainly flown by in a whirlwind of activity bringing us to this milestone we are proudly celebrating. And, what a celebration we had on Friday - please see attached photos. The students made birthday cards, we gathered together to sing 'Happy Birthday', shared wonderful cupcakes and then everyone received a very special present. Thanks to the incredible folks at Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas each student (and teacher) received an age appropriate copy of the Bible for their very own - wow! Thank you Southcrest!!
School officially started on Wednesday, September 1st and everything went smoothly as students and teachers got down to the important work of learning. The school was peaceful and the students orderly - nothing short of a miracle! I'm sure this was due in large part to the fact so many teachers returned along with Mrs. Grace Williams, Principal and Mrs. Olivia Tasher, Vice-Principal. The staff just keeps getting better and better thanks to the guidance of our General Manager, Mrs. Marlene Leslie. Not only were the staff and students 'looking good', but thanks to the many volunteers who labored long and hard this summer, Holy Cross was also looking 'mighty fine' - smile.
Speaking of 'mighty fine'.....our new state-of -the-art composting toilet facility is AWESOME!!! Thanks be to God, we were able to get half of the facility up and running for the first day of school. We are currently awaiting the additional toilets which are sitting in Customs right now. Hopefully they will be delivered soon (say lots of prayers!). So far everything is working perfectly. Many thanks to the Episcopal Church Women for providing a $42,000US grant to get this project underway. We only recently found out that we'll need to build a water garden for the facility . I'm not exactly sure what that is (ask Vernon) but I do know it will cost an additional $20,000US. If you would like to contribute to the health and welfare of our children and the environment, we really need your donations!
As we celebrate a new school year, the birthday of Holy Cross, fabulous bathrooms AND Belize Independence Day - on September 21st the nation will be 29 years old - we also celebrate our friends and supporters all over the world. You have each contributed in some way to turn a desperate need for a primary school into an amazing reality. Thank you for caring and for sharing your time, talents and treasure. Please continue your support for the Feeding Program, scholarships, dental clinic, school supplies and materials. All children deserve the chance to dream big dreams. With your support and love, dreams will continue to be born and come true at Holy Cross Anglican School. Blessings, Francis
Tax deductible donations can be made through The Holy Cross Education Foundation www.hcefoundation.org
or by mail to: Holy Cross Education Foundation
7550 Corporate Way
Eden Prairie, MN 55436-2045
Contributions may also be sent directly to the School:
Holy Cross Anglican SchoolSan Pedro TownAmbergris CayeBelize
Support Holy Cross Anglican School in San Pedro http://www.holycrossbelize.org/
New composting toilet mechanics
Washing hads in the new batroom building
Holy Cross kids
Holy Cross Kids
Holy Cross Kids
Holy Cross Kids
Kids in the lunchroom
Holy Cross Kids
Hol Cross Kids
Hello friends and family,
I am writing to you to ask you to support Holy Cross Anglican School (HCAS) in the Global Giving Green Open challenge. To give you a little background, HCAS is a school in San Mateo, Ambergis Caye, off the coast of Belize. In Belize, even public education is not free. HCAS, which is funded through donation, provides pre-kindergarten through eighth grade education to 500 students. These 500 kids are the most disadvantaged on the island and would not have the opportunity of education without HCAS. Not only do these kids receive schooling at HCAS, but they also receive two meals per day; sometimes the only food they eat.
HCAS was selected as one of 20 organizations to participate in the Global Giving Green Open challenge. San Mateo is currently powered by diesel generators, making it extremely difficult and costly to consistently operate the volunteer built dental clinic and computer lab. Through GlobalGiving.org, we have the opportunity to install a combination of wind generators and solar panels. This will provide reliable, effective energy and help bolster Holy Cross Anglican School. HCAS is the only school on the Island with a computer lab this robust and large and opens its doors to adult education programming to serve the greater community. Both the dental clinic and computer lab are huge resources to San Mateo.
Through the Green Open challenge, HCAS has a HUGE opportunity to become a PERMANENT link on the GlobalGiving.org website. All we need is 50 different donors and a total of $4,000 in donations. For only $10 dollars, you can provide enough electricity for one computer for one month. For $75, you can provide enough electricity to support the dental clinic for one month. We only have until July 30th to complete the challenge, so please act quickly if this is something you feel you can support.
HCAS is a school that I fully support and believe will impact and improve the lives of thousands of children and the greater economy of Belize. By providing renewable energy to HCAS, we can help sustain this incredible place. I sincerely thank you for your thoughts and any (tax-deductible) contributions you can make to HCAS.
Lauren
Dear Friends, I'm happy to report that Holy Cross survived the first serious storm of the season, Alex, and is safe and sound - thanks be to God!! We're always a little on edge from June to November and certainly appreciate your prayers. As we heave a sigh of relief, we're back to work with two volunteer teams (St. Paul's School for Girls in Baltimore, MD and St. Dustan's in Dover, MA) continuing work on the new bathroom facility. We look forward to a busy and productive summer with mission groups, Vacation Bible Schools and plenty of construction!!
Please take a few minutes to read the following expert from an article written by Reid Joyner (Diocese of North Carolina). He visited Belize in May as part of Episcopal Relief and Development's annual meeting. We were fortunate that he spent some time at Holy Cross. Many thanks to Reid and all of you who share the amazing story of Holy Cross Anglican School. Blessings, Francis
Episcopal Relief & Development in Belize
Episcopal Relief & Development’s network of diocesan and seminarian coordinators meets each spring to reconnect, share best practices and hear the latest about ERD’s programs and plans. For the first time our annual meeting, held over the Memorial Day weekend, occurred outside our borders in Belize City, Belize. The location was chosen because the Belizean diocese, supported by Episcopal Relief & Development, could “provide Diocesan Coordinators an opportunity to witness our partners’ life-saving work firsthand and to help them tell the story of our work more effectively,” in the words of Network Coordinator Luke Fodor. Field trips were planned to allow us to see the ERD-provided HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum in elementary schools and to see recipients of ERD-funded microfinance loans.
Parishes in our diocese have participated for years in mission trips to Belize and in recent years to Holy Cross Anglican School in San Pedro. That connection led to my having the good fortune of being invited by the Rev. Jan Lamb, Deacon at St. Luke’s, Durham, and Holy Cross volunteer, to visit the school as her guest prior to the annual meeting’s start.
And what good fortune it was. Holy Cross, located in San Mateo, an underserved area of San Pedro, is an elementary school educating just over 500 children from Kindergarten through 8th grade. During my short visit I sat in on 2nd grade and 6th grade classes where I saw evidence of the HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum and listened to oral testing for end-of-term exams; I experienced a donated computer lab; I walked to school with a beautiful 2nd grader named Aaliyah; I ate lunch with the children and sat in on their weekly chapel services (separate services for the youngest, middle and oldest children); and I walked with Jan through the San Mateo neighborhood.
What I found was a school of happy children delighted to be in the school environment and eager to learn in spite of their challenging circumstances. Teachers were effective and students knew their subject matter. Younger students were variously attentive and older students were quickly responsive to the oral testing. In a positive way, the Holy Cross visit gave me a foundation against which to compare the field trip schools. A visit to the Holy Cross School web site will be time well spent.
I’m Jimmy Hemphill. I’m coordinating an effort to write an article about Holy Cross School for the “Texas Episcopalian” (a monthly newspaper that goes to most of the homes in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas – approximately 85,000 members and 158 congregations).
We are writing this article to help raise money for high school scholarships for Holy Cross graduates. Our church’s youth group successfully raised enough money to provide a scholarship for every qualified 2010 Holy Cross graduating student (high school costs about $500/year per student). We are also funding more than 10 students who are currently attending high school. We are going to need help from other churches to develop a donor base that will perpetually fund scholarships.
My wife, an IPPY award winning poet, is writing the article. I’m trying to put together an electronic presentation, comprised of still images and commentary, to supplement the article.
While we were in Belize to support the Holy Cross graduation and award the scholarships, we interviewed scholarship winners. We also interviewed the mother of the student my family supports, and we visited her family at their home in the swamp that surrounds Holy Cross. We have more than 6 hours of audio tape, including interviews with the Wilsons.
This is my third trip to Holy Cross and we have lots of still images. I’m attaching a few thumbnails of the photos we took this year before the graduation – I haven’t had time to start editing the pictures we took at the graduation.
If we could include some high quality video footage taken at Holy Cross, we could significantly improve our presentation and our ability to generate scholarships. If anyone has any to share please contact me at bookworm@kingwoodcable[dot]com
Obviously we will only use the footage to generate scholarships.
I would be delighted to talk to you about our project, or provide any other information you might need.
We can make a difference at Holy Cross,
Jimmy Hemphill
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!On Sunday, June 20, thirty-five students graduated from Holy Cross Anglican Primary School. Mrs. Carol Babb, former General Manager of the Anglican Schools and currently the Deputy Chief Education Officer, was the guest speaker. Mrs. Babb told the graduates that there were great possibilities for their future, but they must remember to be self-disciplined and determined, and they would have to make sacrifices in order to excel. Mrs. Grace Williams, Principal, and Mrs. Francis Wilson, Local Manager, also had praise for the graduates and words of wisdom. Rosa Lopez (Valedictorian), Zoila Canek and Ethel Villatoro were the top students in the 2009-2010 Standard VI class.
Twenty-five students received scholarships that will allow them to attend high school. The majority of the scholarships were funded through a very generous donation from Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Kingwood, Texas. Representatives from the church were on hand to meet the graduates and to present the scholarships.
The graduation ceremony included tributes to the Class of 2010 in poetry, songs and dance by the children in each division of Holy Cross. The traditional Torch Passing ceremony was also a part of the day. Prizes, a backpack full of school supplies, were awarded to the top two students in each class. At the conclusion of the festivities, children and their families were treated to cupcakes, also provided by the good folks from Good Shepherd Church.
Visit from Bob the Parrot and Joey Stevens
0 comments Posted by Holy Cross Anglican School at 7:09 AMDear Friends of Holy Cross, Wild and crazy things are always happening here at Holy Cross - smile! Today we had a surprise visit from Weatherman Joey Stevens from WSEE in Erie, Pennsylvania and his side kick, Bob the Parrott. For those of you who are not in Belize, WSEE does "One Caribbean Weather" everyday. Joey and the Parrott are in San Pedro as part of the San Pedro Lobsterfest celebration. Check out the WSEE website later this week - should be on there soon. Their weather runs all day, lots of chances to see the show. Needless to say, the children were quite excited and welcomed the break from exams and the end of year wind down.
In addition to welcoming Joey and the Parrott, we also rejoiced as volunteer mission teams have recently come to work at the school (thanks be to God!). Folks from Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas, All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, Texas and the youth group from St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Durham, North Carolina have shared their time, talents and treasure and helped make Holy Cross an even better place to learn and grow. Many thanks!
Our Standard VI students are currently preparing for graduation which will be held this Sunday (June 20th) at 1pm at the Nunez Auditorium at San Pedro High School. We are so proud of our 36 soon-to-be graduates!! We are also overwhelmed with gratitude to the many folks at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Kingwood, Texas who have agreed to provide the financial assistance for 24 of our graduates to go onto high school - wow!!!
And finally an update on our Corporate Matching fundraiser....... as of today, 35 donors have contributed $14,644.75 to the project which will support the Holy Cross Feeding Program and construction projects!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE make your donation today,
EITHER on line at www.hcefoundation.org
OR via check made payable to Holy Cross Education Foundation sent to: Holy Cross Education Foundation; 7550 Corporate Way; Eden, MN 55436-2045
Thanks to several generous corporate donors, your contribution will be DOUBLED and many children will have a better chance to grow up healthy and well educated. Many thanks for your prayers and your support. May you be blessed as you are a blessing to Holy Cross Anglican School!! In Christ, Francis
Support Holy Cross Anglican School in San Pedro www.holycrossbelize.org
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