Homecoming 2011 has arrived at Catherine McAuley High School!!!

If you want to enjoy some McAuley fun, food, and football, come to our Homecoming festivities this weekend, Friday, September 23, and Saturday, September 24! Below is our schedule of events:

Friday, September 23:

4:00 PM- Cross Country Meet! McAuley Lions versus Thornton Academy, Gorham, and

                Marshwood at McAuley!

5:00-7:00 PM- Pre-Game Tailgating Party and McAuley’s Best Dance Crew

                Competition! This is a not-to-be-missed spectacle of class and faculty

                talent!

7:15     Powder Puff Football under the lights! It’s the Green Seniors and Juniors versus

               the Gold Sophomores and Freshmen in our annual Grid-Lock Battle! Special

               guest, Julia Furtado, Miss Maine and McAuley 2009 graduate, will be singing

               the National Anthem. Bring your own voices as you cheer on your favorite

               team! And don’t forget to stop by our Parents Club booth field-side, to check

               out all of our new McAuley gear, and enjoy some warm beverages and

               homemade baked goods for sale!

Saturday, September 24:

10:00 AM – McAuley’s Varsity and Junior Varsity Soccer game on Larry K. Mahaney

               Athletic Field!

4:00 PM – Celebrate Mercy Day at Holy Mass at the Motherhouse Chapel.

7:00- 10:00 PM – We close Homecoming Weekend with a true McAuley celebration, and

                a community favorite, the Homecoming Dance! Tickets are on sale during

                lunch hours for all students! Dance forms are available in the main office!

If you have any questions, call 797-3802! We look forward to seeing you here!

   Each year the All-Class, All-School Reunion guest list leaps past its prior year’s attendance, and 2011 was certainly no exception! 

   On Saturday, June 25^th, over 150 graduates from Cathedral High School, Saint Joseph’s Academy, and Catherine McAuley High School celebrated their annual All-Class, All-School Reunion with a Mass and luncheon at the Motherhouse on Stevens Avenue in Portland. The McAuley Community would especially like to extend our sincere congratulations to the enthusiastic classes of 1961 from Saint Joseph’s Academy, and Cathedral High School, who celebrated their 50th year anniversaries this year!

On Saturday, May 15, 194 runners and nearly 30 walkers participated in McAuley’s fourth annual Run for Hope, a yearly run/walk that honors the memory of Jim and Maxine Pouravelis, Par ’99 & ’02, two vibrant and devoted members of the McAuley community who passed away within months of each other in the summer of 2006.

The proceeds of the event, which impressively tallied just over $20,000, will go towards a scholarship fund that will provide financial assistance to young women seeking an education at Catherine McAuley High School, an education Jim and Maxine saw as essential to the intellectual, athletic, and spiritual development of young women.

Finishing at the top in this year’s race were males Andy Fitch of North Yarmouth (17:13), Adam Eschner of Boston (18:05), and Rob Snow of Cumberland (18:23).  The top three female finishers were Stephanie Crawford of Dover, NH, Lauren Fecteau ’10 of Portland, and Marjorie Haney of Portland, who completed the race with respective times of 19:21, 20:01, and 20:06.

Special thanks is extended to all who planned and participated in the event, and most especially to Claudia ’99 and Justine Pouravelis ’02, who continue to keep their parents’ hope alive for the young women of Catherine McAuley High School.

Be sure to join us for next year’s race — scheduled for May 14, 2011.

On Thursday, September 10, Catherine McAuley High School had the pleasure of playing host to New York Times Best-selling Author Immaculee Ilibagiza, author of Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, McAuley’s 2009 community-wide summer read.

Ilibagiza is a living example of faith put into action.  A survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Ilibagiza and seven other women spent 91 days huddled silently together in a cramped bathroom of a local pastor’s house, where she miraculously escaped the savage killings around her.  She credits her salvation mostly to prayer and to a set of rosary beads given to her by her devout Catholic father.  With the exception of her brother, who was studying outside of the country during the genocide, Ilibagiza lost her entire family.

In a morning presentation to the student body and in an evening presentation to the general public, Ilibagiza spoke of the importance of spreading kindness, peace, faith and forgiveness to everyone, everywhere.

As a token of the School’s appreciation, Ilibagiza was presented with a Peace Pole, an internationally-recognized symbol for the promotion of peace on earth.  Given by Student Council President Tori McAllister ’10 and Student Council Vice President Samantha Dedian ’10, the gift served as a promise for McAuley High School to consistently strive for a better world and live the ideals that Ilibagiza upholds.  A larger replica of the Peace Pole will stand in the School’s Mall, etched with ‘May Peace Prevail on Earth’ in four different languages — English, French, Spanish, and Korean — a representation of the impressive diversity of McAuley’s student body.

On the evening of Thursday, April 30, Catherine McAuley High School hosted its inaugural Boston Alumnae Chapter Meeting at Regis College, uniting graduates of St. Joseph’s Academy, Cathedral High School, and McAuley.

Held in the Grand Foyer of the College, the event proved to be a wonderful opportunity for our alumnae to reconnect with classmates, revitalize their link to their school, and learn of the wonderful achievements of our young women.

Special thanks is extended to all who attended, and may our current students follow the lead of our graduates in becoming successful, confident women of Mercy.

On April 4, in conjunction with McAuley’s annual Auction, Traditions, the 2009 ‘Spirit of McAuley’ Award was given posthumously to Mr. Leroy W. Rand, an individual who selflessly gave his time and talent to both the McAuley family and community at large during his tenure at the School.

An educator for forty-three years, thirteen of which were spent in Catherine McAuley High School’s History Department (1988-2001), Leroy fostered the educational and moral compasses of our young women by instilling the McAuley values of Excellence, Compassion, Leadership, and Service, the very same principles that Leroy practiced and modeled. He garnered the respect and admiration of students and faculty alike in his unwavering commitment to the betterment of McAuley High School and its immediate and extended family.

Beyond the classroom walls, Leroy was a beloved coach and mentor. He was McAuley’s first soccer coach and worked to develop a Class A team still in existence today, one that his daughter, Jo-Ellen, now helps to instruct. Leroy’s total career in coaching spanned an impressive forty years, most of which were spent on the baseball diamond with Little League through Over-30 teams. In addition, for his dedication to athleticism, sportsmanship, and love of the game, the Maine Principal’s Association honored Leroy with Class B Basketball’s ‘Coach of the Year’ Award in 1985.

In his personal life, Leroy was a treasured family man, one who was thankful for the blessings of his wife Joan, children Michele, Kevin, Greg, Dennis, David, Jo-Ellen, and Allison, his sixteen grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He and Joan, who were steadfast in their devotion to the Catholic Church, raised their family in this faith, with Leroy being recognized for his countless years of service as a CCD Teacher, Eucharistic Minister, and Lector for both St. Bartholomew’s and Holy Cross Church, and through his involvement with the Knights of Columbus Cheverus Council.

Rand passed away in February 2008 at the age of 74.

Accepting the award on his behalf were his wife, Joan Given Rand, CHS ’55, and his daughter, Jo-Ellen Rand, a McAuley faculty member.

]]> http://www.mcauleyhs.org/newsblog/2009/05/04/leroy-rand-honored-with-2009-spirit-of-mcauley-award/feed/ 0 http://www.mcauleyhs.org/newsblog/2008/11/04/alumnae-chapter-meeting-a-night-to-remember/ http://www.mcauleyhs.org/newsblog/2008/11/04/alumnae-chapter-meeting-a-night-to-remember/#comments Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:40:18 +0000 Ericka Sanborn http://www.mcauleyhs.org/newsblog/?p=113 http://www.mcauleyhs.org/images/PDF_Icon.gif

Thursday evening, October 30, marked a special milestone for Catherine McAuley High School — the inaugural Portland Alumnae Chapter Meeting for graduates of St. Joseph’s Academy, Cathedral High School, and McAuley High.

Held at DiMillo’s Floating Restaurant, the gathering united over sixty graduates, with graduation years ranging from the 1940s to the 2000s, and provided them the opportunity to relax, reconnect, and revitalize their link to the McAuley community.

“I couldn’t help feeling like one big family,” remarked Roberta (Bobbie) Rand Henderson, CHS ’55.  “This is an advantage of an all-female high school education.  No matter if you are a graduate of St. Joseph’s Academy, Cathedral, or McAuley, you belong to the same family of girls.”

Added Karen Welch Marier, CHS ’63: “The evening was very touching.  Seeing the younger graduates almost made me cry with fond memories.  Thank you for a lovely time.”

Although Portland was the first stop of many, plans are underway to establish a chapter in Boston in the spring of 2009.

Thank you to all involved for making this evening a true celebration of the Mercy spirit.

In the most widely anticipated Homecoming celebration in recent years, the CMHS community gathered the weekend of September 19 and 20 armed with tons of McAuley pride.

In a huge upset on the part of the senior class, the juniors walked away with the coveted “Locker Wars” crown on Friday afternoon, welcoming all passerbys to “the jungle.”  The juniors continued their winning streak in the evening by capturing the title of “Best Set-Up” in the first ever pre-game tailgating party.  At sundown, under the lights, the junior class, along with their senior teammates, dominated the second annual Powder Puff Football Game.  With a score of 35-21, it was Pink over Blue (freshmen and sophomores) in a heated match-up.

In the anticipated Homecoming semi-formal dance on Saturday night, nine girls were honored in the traditional Homecoming Court.  Representing the freshmen were Sadie DiPierro and Olivia Crozier.  A.J. Berks stood for the sophomores, while Tori McAllister and Sam Dedian represented the juniors.  Finally, seniors Jennifer Kaserman, Helen Gillis and Liz Harnois stood with McAuley’s Homecoming Queen, Julia Furtado.