Mary, Queen of the Holy RosaryNovember 2015

At the end of each school year, we create and read a poem to each staff member who is leaving or retiring. Linda alwaysmade an effort to say how much she enjoyed the poems, even requesting copies for herself. This is Linda’s retirement poem.We know she will always be a part of Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary School.

There are twenty lines in this poem representing the twenty years she taught at Mary Queen. There are ten couplets, orrhyming pairs of lines, representing the grade levels and pairs of homerooms we have at Mary Queen, from PreK-8thGrade. Those couplets are divided into five stanzas, representing the five principals she taught under at Mary Queen. Eachline has eleven syllables representing the individual targets of student growth at the school: reading, religion, and recess;Spanish, social studies and science; math and music, art and PE, and yes – lunch.

The Kinder Garden“Hello,” she greeted in her whispering wayTo her buds as they planted inside her door.“Kindergarten is great! You can learn and play!Here you will find friends, pray to God, and much more!”

She nurtured every student with love and careIn her Kinder Garden of flowers so bright!To her every student was answered prayerReady to sprout, and grow, and bloom in His light.

In her quiet manner, her presence was knownLike a whisper from God in a gentle breeze.Her students would come back long after they’d grownTo talk and to share with such joy and with ease.

Linda was proud of her work and who she was,To her students she was that one precious gem.Her strength came from God and her family, becauseWhat mattered to her was her service to them.

Linda knew what most all other teachers know,That the seeds won’t thrive in the soil that would harden.It takes much toil, and time, and treasure to growBeautiful flowers in her Kinder Garden.

Linda RukavinaJune 21, 1951 - November 2, 2015

from the Pastor. . .

Vol. XXIII, No. 3November 2015

Father DanTO BURY THE DEAD

What love surrounds the family of a Mary Queen parishioner who has just died!

When our parish office receives word of a death of a parishioner, all kinds of love springs to life. Our office staffresponds quickly and with care. We do all in our power to schedule the services at a time that meets the firstwishes of the family.

We have a compassionate, skilled volunteer who meets with the family to plan the Funeral Mass and to serve assacristan. She also produces programs for the Mass. Our Music Director changes her schedule to provide musicfor the Mass, and volunteer choir members add their gifts of leadership in song. Our School provides servers forthe Mass. Other parishioners chip in to supply whatever other liturgical ministry is needed.

Another volunteer contacts the family to offer the gift of a meal for everyone who attends the Funeral Mass. Inturn, many parishioners gladly prepare and ultimately serve the food for the meal.

And all of this is a gift to the family in love for them and of their faithfully departed family member. Peoplevolunteer their time, and the parishioners gladly foot the bill.

And this is as it should be. Those whose funeral Masses we celebrate are members of our parish family, the bodyof Christ. “To bury the dead” is one of the Corporal Works of Mercy.

The Year of Mercy begins on December 8. A concrete way of celebrating mercy would be to make the sacrificeto attend the funeral of a parishioner whom you may not know very well or at all, especially if it is an elderlyparishioner. I have never heard any family complain that there were too many people at a loved one’s funeral, orbe upset that someone they didn’t know attended the funeral. Instead, there is profound appreciation.

We members of Mary Queen show a lot of love for those parishioners who have lost a loved one. This is onemore sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence drawing us together here, in preparation for the grand gathering inheaven.

New ParishionersWe extend our warmest welcome to the new families who have recently joined our parish:

Arthur & Lucy FidowiczRobert Jr. & Allison RobertsMrs. Carol NachtigalCarlos & Laura ArmenterosStephen & Colleen BellasMark & Mary FloresCharles Jr. & Deborah FilburnRebecca GrupkeMaria del Carmen MendozaRosaura AlonsoMichael & Joyce F. WelganCamilo & Virginia Rey

Happy Thanksgiving!

Queen’s ServiceMinor Maintenance Al Schroeder ..........................277-8285Temporary Food Preparation Penny Logan..........................224-9610

Scottye Terhune ....................278-7372Prayer Network Jane Leake ............................231-8409Visitation Bob Kotzbauer ......................273-3645Transportation Parish Office ..........................278-7432Bereavement Parish Office ..........................278-7432Funeral Meals Debbie Schnurr ......................278-0742Caring CardsQueen’s Service Parish Office ..........................278-7432

If you would like to volunteer for this ministry or need assistance . . .please call one of the above numbers.

A special “THANK YOU” to all the volunteers who give of their time andmany talents to be of service for our church family.

VOLUNTEERS you are like an “God’s special messengers.”

Send us your news!This is YOUR Newsletter, and we are interested in your news and comments. If you would like to contributeinformation or pictures, please send to Jenny Poole at jpoole859@windstream.net OR jpoole5841@gmail.comor call Jenny at 223-9854 if you have any questions.

NEXT DEADLINE FOR DECEMBERNEWS IS DECEMBER 4, 2015!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! Psalm 107:1

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever.Financial News Notes:• The Mary Queen Fall Festival grossed approximately $107,000 in revenue and estimates a net income of

about $52,000 compared to $62,000 last year, and $75,000 budget ($50,000 proceeds to school, $25,000proceeds to pay school debt). This always is a wonderful community event and I thank all those who donated,volunteered and supported the Festival, especially Kristi Swanson, Festival chair. So many people put forthso much effort every year. You know who you are. Thanks & God bless you! Next year's Festival has not beenset. We will be setting the Night of Angels event for the spring soon.

• Some financial details about the parish for your study as you respond to Father Dan's appeal on 11/7-8/15 and 11/14-15/15. The Offertory collection currently funds the day to day expenses of the parish and thepayments on our long term debts. We no longer have two funds for Offertory and Capital. We ask you to makeone contribution on a regular basis to fund our total expenses. The money collected from our Offertorycollection since July 1 of this year is, as of the end of first week of November, $43,792 short of what we needto meet our budget for our day to day expenses ($806,113 vs. actual $762,321.) If each of our parishionerswho are behind catch up on their Offertory pledges made last November, we can close this gap by the end ofDecember 2015. Payments on these pledges are short $200,061 through October. Our current Offertoryaverage giving level is $42,351 compared to our average needed giving level of $44,784. Note, these financialfigures reflect only the church budget. The school budget is excluded, except for the cash parish support tothe school in the amount of nearly $675,000. Thanks for all the parishioners who have been givingelectronically. We have gone from 109 in 2014 to 196 current families giving electronically...."which weprefer"!

• Electronic Giving…Have you thought about giving to the Church electronically instead of writing thatcheck? Mary Queen has three options available. 1) Complete an ACH/EFT (electronic fund transfer) form,Mary Queen sets up your donation to be paid directly from your account, 2) Mary Queen’s online “Donate”link where you set up the donations one-time or recurring via your bank checking / savings account or yourcredit card, or 3) Bill payment processing through your bank – you do the set up via your online account, orcall your bank for help. You can find the information for all of these on our website. Click on the ElectronicGiving tab that is located on the left side of the screen. How to take advantage of these options: 1) ACH/EFTform – obtain a form via the website, pick one up from the bulletin table, or call the parish office (859) 278-7432 for help. Once the form is completed please return to the parish office. 2) Visit Mary Queen’s homepageand click on the Electronic Giving tab, click on the link to “Donate” and follow directions to set up youraccount. 3) Bill Payment Processing – if you pay bills via your banks online account, you can set up MaryQueen as a payee and create a one time payment or recurring. You may also call your bank for help with this.May God bless you and reward you in your generosity! Please contact Walter Leachman if you have anyquestions. (859) 278-7432 x 239 or wleachman@cdlex.org.

• The Mary Queen Legacy Society is being created to honor and recognize our legacy donors who have namedMary Queen Parish and/or Mary Queen School as a beneficiary in their will, trust, retirement account,charitable trust or life insurance policy. A committee has been formed to establish this Legacy Society as ameans of planned giving for and to Mary Queen. Stay tuned for more news about this worthwhile venture.

• Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary is blessed in so many ways. Thanks for all you do and God bless you. KeepMary Queen parish in your prayers.

Walter Leachman, Business Manager

School NewsFrom the Principal . . . I would like to take a moment to brag, we have sucha wonderful community of teachers and students whowork so hard and these past few weeks are a greatexample of how hard work pays off. Our 4th gradersstudied and prepared and presented a wonderfulSaints Wax Museum. Forty-four students wereinducted in our Junior Beta Club, now 84 studentsstrong, the Beta Club had their first “rake and run”,Jesse H. is the Elementary Diocese of LexingtonSpelling Bee Champion, our 7th and 8th graders haveanswered over 100,000 math questions on IXLcorrectly this year and our sixth grade has sent theirThanksgiving wishes to their Alzheimer pen pals.

Did you know that a pumpkin can be used in many,many ways? Our third graders made globes, our Firstgrade has been learning about the life cycle of plantsand conducting observations on pumpkins, we madebook report pumpkins in Library classes, the Fifthgraders illustrated The Legend of Sleepy Hollow onpumpkins provided by the Knights of Columbus, ourPreK read the Pumpkin Patch Parable and made aclass Jack-o-lantern while it was being read. Thechildren loved that we can shine with the Light ofJesus just like our Jack-o-lantern can shine. We areso grateful for the pumpkins and the many other waysthe Knights of Columbus supports our parish school.

Our quickly approaching Thanksgiving Day holidayleads me to say, “thank you” from the students,faculty and staff of Mary Queen School. We areincredibly grateful for all the love and prayers that

you share with us. We are exceedingly appreciativefor all the support of the parish and the help youprovide but mostly we are grateful to belong to sucha loving community. Happy Thanksgiving!

Come learn more about joining our MQHR SchoolCall 277-3030 for a personal tour.

How Can You Help?

Teacher Wish ListsDon’t forget to check for all the wishes of ourteachers:http://home.catholicweb.com/maryqueenschool/index.cfm/NewsItem?ID=367159

Send in your Box Tops!Each Box Top earns $.10.This money is used towardsmaterials for the classrooms

such as science display boards and help pay forprograms such as IXL.

Send in your Campbell’s labels!The points we earn for each labelwe send in helps us to purchasesupplies for the Art room.

Please designate your TargetCard for Mary QueenSchool. The monies earnedwith our Target give backprogram helps to fund our

technology program.

Thank you to everyonewho participates in theMarket Day fundraiser.

Our goal is to raise $10,000 with this fundraiser. Allmonies earned from this fundraiser go directly to payoff the debt of the ELC.

MQHR Sixth Grade Lead CanDrive

Mary Queen School’s Sixth Grade lead this year’sschool and parish “Kids Can Fight Hunger” food andcan drive for God’s Pantry Food Bank.

Students created posters to place around the school toremind everyone to bring in food August 24th –October 23rd. God’s Pantry was asking for only fourtypes of food donations this year – canned vegetables,canned fruit, canned soups and peanut butter.

Students regularly went to the church and carriedcollected food from the barrel there to the barrels inthe school. There were six barrels placed around theschool and church, all of which were full when theywere picked up at the end of the drive.

Thank you to all school families and parishionerswho donated this year!

MORE FESTIVAL PICTURES!!!

PRE-SCHOOLThe month of October is always a very busy month for ourstudents. Through hands onplay they learned aboutCamping, Farm Life, Applesand Pumpkins. We had avisit from the fire departmentduring Community Helpersweek; our students got toexplore the fire truck andlistened to the firemen talk about fire safety.

Our annual Halloween Costume Parade is always fun, it’sa delight for the older students to see the youngpreschoolers parade around the school; well done to thepreschoolers they did a great job with their costumes.

A BIG HIGH FIVE to the KNIGHTS of COLUMBUS forsupplying the teachers and students with an ample supplyof pumpkins for the classrooms. It was nice to see howeach class decorated and put their own twist on their

pumpkins. Our school wide picnic was a huge success; theKNIGHTS came through for us again by barbecuingburgers and hot dogs for the picnic, the preschoolers hadso much fun mingling and dancing with their older peersand enjoying the music and yummy food.  Thank you tothe KNIGHTS of COLUMBUS for all your hard work anddedication to the school, we feel very blessed.

If you would like any further information on our program,or would like to set up a personal tour, please contactMichelle Cobb at 277-3030 ext. 249.

BlessingsDeirdre O’Dwyer & Kathy HughesKathy Norton & Linda HeisterMary Bodart & Maryanne CawoodTiffany Barr & Monica Negron

BUILDOn Oct 26th, 366 people attended the CommunityProblems Assembly at Consolidated Baptist Church. Wehad 46 from MQ’s justice ministry network!

We heard reports on these issues:The affordable housing fund is currently funding projectsto provide homes for people with low income, disabilitiesand elderly, and victims of domestic abuse. Over 350 unitsare in the system so far! The payday lending group is working hard to strategizeand build broad support to show the state legislature wewant to cap payday loans at 36%. Petitions were passedaround that night and people were invited to write lettersto let their representative hear from us. Let me know if youwould like to sign the petition and/or write a letter. I havea template to work from if you like.The crime and violence issue is still being worked on. Apolice commander came and said that they don’t think thatthe drug initiative we talked about from the NationalNetwork for Safe Communities was the best way to go.She did think that the NNSC program to reduce violentcrimes was what they wanted to work on. BUILD ismeeting with the Mayor, Police Chief, Commissioners ofpublic safety and social services in early November to talkabout the city sending representatives to NNSC’sCeasefire University and moving forward to makeLexington a safer city for all of us.

The voting for the new issue was very close and exciting!Most of our MQ attendees wanted health and mentalhealth, though there was a small group who were verycommitted to youth and education. In the end we agreed tovote as a block, all our votes going to health and mentalhealth which in the end won in a close vote, so that will bethe focus of our work this year. Many of the stories weheard in our listening sessions were about youth withmental health issues and needs, so it is possible to work ona way to address youth as well.

The next step is the research phase. The kick off for thatwill be Monday, Nov. 30, 6:30 at Second Presbyterian.Justice Ministry Network Members interested in any of theareas (payday lending, crime and violence, health andmental health) can attend, join a research committee andparticipate in the fascinating research process.

We want to grow our justice ministry network. We aredoing great work in Lexington, contact Kabby to be a partof it! (kakers@cdlex.org, 223-8887).

Bishop John leads the prayer.

Mary Queen crowd.

Kabby gives the MQ vote.

Fr. Dan fires up the crowd with the Closing Charge.

Congolese RefugeesMany Faces in God’s House

No doubt the Holy Spirit is at work at MQ! Fr. Dan got a callSaturday evening, Oct 17 that a Congolese refugee family of 11was arriving in Lexington from an Ugandan refugee camp a fewdays later and would we be interested in walking with them asthey relocated to Lexington? Fr. Dan said “Of course!” andstarted the ball rolling, inviting those at the 8:15 Mass the nextmorning to start to meet their physical needs by picking up acard with an item that they needed to set up their new apartmentsa few days later. 180 cards with items like toilet paper, laundrybasket, lamps, clock radio, towels, etc. were all picked up withinminutes of the end of Mass! Cash was also donated to purchaseadditional items. Many people signed up to volunteer to walkwith them on this journey. The energy and excitement waselectric and wonderful!

Esperance and her family (her 7 children, her sister, niece andcousin, ages 5-21) attended 8:15 Mass Oct. 25 and were warmlywelcomed by the community. After Mass a couple took 4 ofthem out to breakfast. A family had a couple bikes for the boys.Volunteers came to their house all week to help them learn howto cook, take them shopping for shoes and warm clothing, teachthem English, and be friends.

A few of them asked about belonging to the choir so a choirmember brought them to the TH practice and 2 of them sangwith the choir at 8:15 Mass on Nov. 1! Karen Snider is lookingfor some Swahili hymns so that they can share their music withus.

Their needs are great. They need transportation to medicalappointments, to Social Security Office to get SSN, and theFood Stamp office to sign up for food stamps. There are classesthey need to attend to learn English and culture. After they havehad their medical exams and SSNs they will need jobs (theyhave work papers). They especially need friendship andcommunity. The evangelization committee and friends plan aThanksgiving Dinner for them this month. A group of volunteersis getting organized to walk with them and meet their needs andthe response is amazing. Being with them is a blessing and a joy!

Debbie Goonan from Catholic Charities and Refugee Ministries(and certainly the Holy Spirit) picked the perfect parish to

welcome Esperance and her beautiful family. Debbie said thatthey will settle successfully due to the support and love they arereceiving from MQ. As other refugee families settle inLexington we may again be called to support and welcome themto Lexington and MQ.

Many Faces in God’s House? You better believe it!

College Box MinistryPictured are Mary Queen parishioners packing shoeboxes full of goodies to be sent to MQ collegestudents away from home!

More Festival Pictures . .

Knights of ColumbusPumpkin Patch