The Dialog

Staff reporter

WILMINGTON — Kennedy Wong is emerging as a leader at Ursuline Academy, not just on the track but in the various school clubs in which she participates and in the classroom. Not bad for a sophomore whose 16th birthday is still a few days away.

Athletically, Wong has made her mark on the cross country and indoor (winter) and outdoor (spring) track teams since eighth grade, when she started running with the varsity. She’s been racing since age 7, when she took part in her first 5K with her father, Brian.

“I guess I was at the age when I was deciding what sport I wanted to do,” she said. “I tried out soccer and karate a little bit, but running was just something that I enjoyed, so I stuck with it.”

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Staff reporter

NEWARK — The Jefferson Awards service program has become a fixture at several Catholic high schools in the diocese, and now Salesianum School and Holy Angels School are teaming up to bring the concept to lower grades.

Dolores Ballintyn, a teacher of religious studies at Salesianum, said she and Barbara Snively, the Holy Angels principal, believed there was a way to partner students in a high school and an elementary school to help them and the community.

“Barb and I really believe very much in the concept of mentorship and serving between our Catholic elementary schools and Salesianum,” said Ballintyn, a former director of religious education at Holy Angels-St. John the Baptist Parish.

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Staff reporter

EASTON, Md. – The school day had ended after mid-term exams in the morning, but 16 students from Ss. Peter and Paul High School stayed for an extra session last week – lunch and conversation with Bishop Malooly.

The bishop visited the Eastern Shore high school, along with the parish grade school, on Jan. 10. At the high school, four students from each grade answered questions from Bishop Malooly about their classwork, extracurriculars and personal life. The students came from a variety of parishes, and several were not Catholic. They had come from various educational backgrounds, including Ss. Peter and Paul Elementary School, public, private and home schools.

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Catholic school students in all-state choir, chorus

The all-state junior chorus and senior choirs have been announced by the Delaware Music Educators Association. For the senior choirs, there is a women’s choir and a mixed choir. They will perform Feb. 11 at Mount Pleasant High School. The junior chorus takes the stage at 4 p.m., the senior choirs at 7 p.m.

Catholic school students who were selected are as follows:

Senior choir

Soprano I: Lauren Curlett, Olivia Boddicker and Rebecca Gasperetti, St. Thomas More; Lauren Johnson, Stacey Gerard and Nina Leski, St. Mark’s; Claire Caverly and Ashley Graef, Archmere; Rose Roddy, Padua; and Shaina Twardus, Ursuline.

Soprano II: Julianne Nemith, Elizabeth Stalker and Elizabeth Stant, St. Thomas More; and Katie Taggart, Archmere.

Alto I: Samantha Kasehagen, Caroline Sylvia and Emily Betley, St. Mark’s; and Emma Skilton, St. Thomas More.

Alto II: Lauren Forman and Emily Calvetti, St. Mark’s; and Christina Lawless, Archmere.

Tenor I: Alex Miller, Salesianum.

Tenor II: Jeremy Keeler, St. Mark’s; Daniel Garzarella and Benjamin Bole, St. Thomas More; and Andrew Starobynski, Salesianum.

Bass I: Patrick Boland, St. Mark’s; and Tyler Heiss, Nicholas Sherwin and Nick Castillo, Salesianum.

Junior chorus

Soprano: Bernadette Bautista, Kayce Boller, Lauren DeRocilli, Andrea Errico, Noel Majka and Yadiana Ramos, Holy Cross; Jacquelyn Kepley, Ursuline.

Alto: Anastasia Bole, Imani Drew, Claire Kolakowski, Kelsi McBarron, Pelu Osunkoya and Molly Thompson, Holy Cross; Luke Koval, Conor McAvinue, St. Edmond’s.

Tenor: Nicholas Reyes and Nicolo Bautista, Holy Cross.

St. Mark’s group helps at Thanksgiving

WILMINGTON – The Z-Club at St. Mark’s High School spent November trying to make sure others had a happy holiday season. Throughout the month, students collected nearly 450 jars of peanut butter and cans of yams for the Basket Brigade of Delaware, a volunteer organization that delivers food at Thanksgiving to needy families. This year, the Basket Brigade hopes to help more than 2,000 families.

In addition, on Nov. 13, members of the Z-Club packed dozens of shoeboxes to support Operation Christmas Guild, a project of Samaritan’s Purse that provides boxes of presents to children in developing countries. The club included a group picture and personal notes to each child.

In the two years the Z-Club has helped with this effort, it has contributed more than 150 shoeboxes to children ages 2-14.

The Z-Club is sponsored by the Philadelphia chapter of Zonta International, which helps develop leadership skills in and community-service activities for sophomore, junior and senior girls.

Staff reporter

Jean Wieand was so impressed with the Catholic school education her grandchildren received at St. Peter the Apostle School that she made a request of their father.

“Before she passed away, my mom was pretty insistent on my kids going to Catholic schools,” said Charles Wieand. In the three years since Jean Wieand died, he has honored his mother’s wish.
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Staff reporter

ELKTON, Md. — The summer checklist for some high school students might look something like this: roll out of bed around 11, check Facebook, go to work, hit the pool, catch a movie.

For most, it does not include raising money for backpacks and school supplies for more than 500 children, unless you are part of the Kemp family of Immaculate Conception Parish in Elkton, Md. Beginning with Erica 10 years ago, then Laura Jeanne, Caroline and now Bryson, the drive now provides new school supplies to more than 500 children each year.

“We consider this serving the Lord,” said their mother, Mary.
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Behold, I am doing something new (Isaiah, 43-19).

We stand at the threshold of a new school year. A new year is always a grace given. Grace is God’s way of breaking in to the life of each and every one of us, and placing a new opportunity in our hands.

To receive this gift requires two attitudes: one of letting go and one of trust and hope.
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Staff reporter

WILMINGTON – For the first time in the school’s history, St. Mark’s was to host an athletic contest under the lights on campus the weekend [after this edition of The Dialog went to press]. The Spartans were scheduled to battle Newark in football Saturday night.

According to principal Mark Freund, the ability to play night games on campus has been a dream of many in the school community almost since St. Mark’s opened in 1969. It was made possible at this time thanks to a “generous donation” by David and Lisa Spartin, whose son, Matthew, graduated this past June.
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Staff reporter

New Castle developer Anthony N. Fusco, whose family has long been associated with Salesianum School and with philanthropy in the Wilmington area, has committed $2 million toward the school’s latest capital campaign which will be used to help build a new strength and conditioning center.

The gift is among the largest Salesianum has ever received, and the largest of this campaign, said Oblate of St. Francis de Sales Father James E. Dalton, who was the president of the school when the pledge was made in the spring. It’s part of the $8 million “Taking Hold: The Campaign for Salesianum,” which gets its name the school’s motto, “Tenui Nec Dimittam,” Latin for “I have taken hold, and I will not let go.”
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Dialog Editor

When Our Lady of Fatima School in New Castle started classes Aug. 24, it welcomed 48 new students who attended St. Paul’s School in Wilmington last year.

The students were invited to Fatima after St. Paul’s was closed in June, following years of declining enrollment and the loss of annual funding from the Catholic Diocese Foundation; $47 million of the foundation’s assets were included in the diocese’s $77.4 million settlement with survivors of sexual abuse by priests.

“We are very much looking forward to the diversity that St. Paul’s family will bring to Our Lady of Fatima,” said Kathleen Kenney, principal of the New Castle school. St. Paul’s primarily served children from Wilmington’s Latino community.
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