St. John's Dad Leads Outdoor Classroom Construction!

Mr. Chris Cooper is a dedicated dad of three girls in our school – Jocelyn, Natasha , and Brooklyn - as well as baby Selena (a future St. John’s student!). His wife, Carrie, is a graduate of St. John’s herself. The Cooper Family has really come through for our school community, and Mr. Cooper's commitment to bringing a unique outdoor classroom experience to our students in inspiring!

Mr. Cooper has donated materials and time into making a beautiful oak cabinet and hutch to raffle off for our playground.  He has also arranged to transport the cabinet to various fundraiser events around Perth, in an effort to bolster raffle ticket sales! In addition, Mr. Cooper is making a storyteller’s chair and seating for our outdoor classroom, as well as a cross for our prayer corner.  He has also helped us with obtaining the permit for the outdoor classroom stage by asking Robert Demerath of Demerath Design & Drafting, to draw the design plans required by the Town of Perth for the permit application. As the owner of CR Cooper Construction in Balderson and a carpenter, St. John’s is lucky to have Mr. Cooper serve as an adviser and expert in the planning for the outdoor classroom. 

Mr. Cooper says, "I believe that you get out of life what you put into it!" His efforts and his continued offers to help out wherever he can is truly heart warming.

We want to extend a huge thank you to Chris for all he has done for helping make dreams come true for the students (and many teachers!) of St. John’s! 

We encourage all St. John’s parents to come out and volunteer on Build Day on Saturday, May 29, and you can help Mr. Cooper and Ms. Nolan construct our new outdoor classroom!

Students at Rideau Vista School in Westport Pay it Forward!

This week, St. John's School  received a beautiful letter in the mail with a cheque for $240 to help support our playground build. The money raised was from students at Rideau Vista School  in Westport, who won a Let Them Be Kids Award last year and transformed their own school yard. 

For several weeks, the students at Rideau Vista  sold cupcakes and raffled off Senators memorabilia. They raised enough money to give all schools in the region - St. John's , Chimo, and VanCleek Hill - each $240 towards their individual Let Them Be Kids playground projects. What a wonderful way of giving back. We extend our deepest gratitude to Rideau Vista School!

Perth's Local OPP Officers Help St. John's Students!

Yesterday was a cold, rainy Saturday in Perth, with chilly temps for a May weekend. Support for St. John's playground continued though, with a fundraiser BBQ hosted at Barnabe's Your Independent Grocer.  Yesterday's BBQ was organized by Perth's local OPP members, and our school is so fortunate to have members of our active provincial police force, who dedicate their time and energy outside work hours to help our community project! Special thanks to Paige Whiting and Angie Atkinson of the Perth OPP for leading the charge!


Over $325 was raised at the BBQ yesterday, with local grocery shoppers enjoying sausages, hot dogs and hamburgers at lunch time. All proceeds go towards St. John's playground renovation, which will take place in only three weeks on Build Day - Saturday, May 29th!

So many of the Perth community's officers in uniform, from the OPP to Perth Police to our local firefighters' associations (just to name a few!), have generously committed their time, efforts and resources to help give St. John's students a fabulous outdoor play experience! Our school salutes our hard-working  men and women who give of themselves in their daily jobs to make our community safe, and we're in awe of their ongoing efforts outside work, which make Perth a better place to live!

Perth's Metro Grocery Store Brings "Fuel" to St. John's Students!

This past Friday, May 7, our local Brownlee's Metro Grocery store brought the "Fuel for Kids" program to St. John's Catholic Elementary School! 

St. John's staff and students enjoyed a complimentary lunch provided by Metro's team sponsors, along with a visit from the Schneider's Race Team! Our students appreciated the great BBQ lunch and a special snack pack, and even got a chance to see the 500 HP Schneider's race car and could receive an autographed photo of the car, signed in person by race car driver, Dave Connelly!


After the St. John's school visit, the "Fuel for Kids" team made a stop at the Perth Metro store later on Friday afternoon from 3pm-7pm, to host a BBQ and display the Schneider's race car! All proceeds went towards St. John's School new playground! Thank you Brownlee's Metro!

Excited St. John's School students check out the Schneider's race car brought to the school by Brownlee's Metro last week! 











Race car driver Dave Connelly was a huge hit with the children, who enjoyed a free lunch compliments of Perth's  
Metro grocery store, while receiving autographs and talking about Schneider's funky race car!

Local Realtors Make St. John's Students Smile!

Here is yet another example of the great community spirit which is alive in Perth!


On Saturday, April 17, realtors from Royal LePage-Pauline Aunger Real Estate Brokerage hosted an open house at their office at 73 Gore Street East in Perth. To help celebrate the open house, these Royal Lepage real estate agents cooked up a yummy BBQ with all proceeds going to the St. John's Playground! Perthites and visitors had the chance to enjoy some lunch and cake for dessert, visit with the realtors, and check out the many local house listings available in the Perth area.

Michelle Fournier of Royal Lepage organized the event, and a total of $250 was raised to help St. John's students have an amazing play experience in our new school yard, which will be transformed this May! St. John's thanks our local Pauline Aunger Royal Lepage realtors for supporting our kids!

Royal Lepage realtors and BBQ hosts extraordinaire!

From left to right: real estate agents Brian Cavanagh, Pauline Aunger, Michelle Fournier, Jeffrey Weir, Sheri D'Aoust, Ivan Hodgins and Jennifer Aunger show their commitment to helping in their community!

Perth Community Helps St. John's Achieve Fundraising Goal!

St. John's Catholic Elementary School is thrilled to announce that it has met its fundraising goal of $51,000 to build its new playground for our students on Build Day - this coming Saturday, May 29th!

A heartfelt THANK YOU to all St. John'sschool families, St. John's parish members, local service clubs, businesses, community associations and individuals, who made generous donations to help meet the goal of providing the students with an amazing outdoor play yard.

We began our fundraising campaign in January, 2010, with high hopes and big dreams for our children! Within 90 days, the Perth community generously responded, and together, we have met our goal of raising $51,000 to transform the St. John's school yard! 

Below, are two of the generous donors, who contributed to meeting the school's goal: 

 Photo courtesy of The Perth Courier

Local realtor, Michelle Fournier of Royal Lepage, is thanked by St. John's teacher Andrea Cunningham, for Michelle's generous donation to improving the school yard, while Michelle's children, Mackenzie and Brody smile for the camera!

 Photo courtesy of The Perth Courier

St. John's Playground Committee Member, Brenda Noonan, and her daughter, Grace, gratefully accepted a generous cheque from John Gemmell, an executive member of the Perth Royal Canadian Legion Branch 244.

God bless everyone for your generosity and let's continue to work alongside one another as we prepare for Build Day!

Perth Community Contributes $14,000 in One Week!

As we come into the final stretch of fundraising for St. John Elementary School's brand new playground, we continue to be amazed at how our school families, parishioners, neighbours and Perth service clubs continue to be generous and join so many others in making the kids' dream of a new school yard a reality! 

In the past seven days, St. John's students have received $14,000 in local donations from individuals and events! Absolutely amazing!

This past weekend, St. John Elementary hosted a huge fundraising dance, headlined by the amazing band Tailgate, which raised $8,000 for the playground. This fundraiser, coupled with generous donations from organizations like our parish's Catholic Women's League, the school's favourite pizzeria (Jersey Joe's!), and the fabulous Perth Firefighters' Association, helps bring us closer to our goal! 

Furthermore, extra fundraising events, such as St. John Catholic High School's popular dress-down day on a recent Friday, helped to raise $911.72! Thank you high school students for being role models to your younger SJ friends and giving back to your larger school community! 

As well, St. John's Elementary junior students hosted a bake sale last week, which raised a whopping $1,000.75. Thank you to all who enjoyed the sale's brownies and cookies, and to the many parents and teachers who baked late into the night to help make the bake sale fundraising a great success!

Below are this week's generous donors, who helped us have our biggest fundraising week since January:

St. John's Catholic Women's League

Jersey Joe's Pizza & Subs

David & Angel Burke

Perth Firefighters Assoc

Lori McParland

Mark & Erin Monker

Dale & Jeanne Nugent

Greg & Terry Bowes

Jo Bali & Dominic Richens

Marie Kirkwood

Kevin & Nancy Jordan

Greg & Laurie McNally

Jennifer & Tyson Sweeney

Murray Blair

SJ Elementary junior students' bake sale

SJ Catholic High School casual day donation

Cooper Family cabinet raffle ticket sales

SJ Tailgate fundraising dance

Fundraising Dance a Huge Success!

St. John's Elementary hosted a dance on Saturday night to raise funds for our new playground. The turn-out was great and a fun time was had by all! The band, Tailgate, which includes former St. John's students, Cheryl (Adrain) Dermann and Brian (Doc) Timmins, was unbelieveable! The dance floor was packed and the music was rockin'! Tailgate helped make a great party even better! 

The Silent Auction was a success with almost 100 items donated and lots of competition among the many bidders! By the time the night was over, more than $8,000 had been raised to help build the students of St. John's a brand new school yard! Thanks to all those who attended for showing your support and community spirit!

SJ Father Shows His Children How It's Done!

Tyler Shaw understands the importance of being a role model to his young children. 

When St. John's Elementary decided to raise funds to transform our school yard, Tyler, a future SJ dad of little Maggie and Marcie Shaw, rolled up his sleeves - literally! 

Tyler is a skilled, friendly mechanic who works at Mark Noonan Automotive in Dewitts Corners near Perth. Earlier this year, Tyler decided he wanted to make a financial contribution to the playground. To do this, he decided to work on a Saturday at K&M Automotive and donate his wages for the day. The end result was a generous $250 donation to the new SJ playground! Tyler's approach to doing his part was innovative and demonstrates to his kids that Dad believe it's important to contribute to his community. Plus, he was one of the first contributors to St. John's playground project!

Hopefully, someday soon, daughters Maggie and Marcie will enjoy playing on SJ's fabulous new playground, along with their fellow SJ students! Thanks Tyler!

Photo courtesy of EMC
 The Shaw and Adrain families have been great supporters of SJ's Playground Build! 

In addition to Tyler's contribution, his wife, Nancy, helped to organize the fundraising dance and will help lead the community garden builders team on Build Day. Her father, Bob Adrain, of Clement Printing has donated generously by printing posters and tickets to help with playground fundraisers. From left to right are: Louise Noonan, Maggie Shaw, Nancy Shaw, Bob Adrain of Clement Printing, Marcie Shaw and Declan Noonan.

Come to the Dance, Dance... wherever you may be!

REMINDER: get your dancing shoes shined!

Calling all parents, parishioners, alumni and Perth party-goers: This is our BIG fundraiser for the new SJ Playground, and the countdown is on!

St. John's Playground Committee is hosting a major fundraiser dance featuring great live music from Tailgate!

Friday, April 10, 2010

Farrell Hall, Perth

Dance from 8pm

Silent Auction from 8-10pm

Tickets $15 (in advance or at the door)

The fabulous Silent Auction will go for two hours, and the items are HOT HOT HOT! Bid on items donated from over 50 regional and local businesses and donors. The Perth area business community has been incredibly generous in offering goods to support SJ's kids, and we thank them! 

Please help support our playground fund. Your children will thank you!