May 2011

N E W S L ET TE R F OR AL U M N I , F A M I L I E S , A N D FR I E N D S O F S a i n t T H O MA S S C H OO L

VOLUME 3 ISSUE 3

Happy Spring Blessings to you and your family.

St. Thomas the Apostle School has embarked on a

journey of faith that is looking toward the future for

the parish community and the families we serve. Stu-

dents one hundred years from now will be studying

and praying in buildings just recently completed. Our

work and our dreams have been realized and our future

is as bright as ever.

Many of you give so much of your time, talent and

treasure to help St. Thomas the Apostle. Our curricular

and extra-curricular programs are numerous and se-

cond to none, and this would not be possible without

you.

Our community cares for each other, prays together

and represents the Christian way of life that Jesus

taught us. It is a school community where everyone in-

tently works at living and expressing the goodness of

God’s love in order to “create a blessed community, in

the heart of Los Angeles, one child at a time.”

The completion of the new school education campus will

bring a strong cohesiveness to the community by con-

solidating all classrooms into one building, adding a

new hall, a library, science and computer labs, and in-

creasing campus security. With this new space, we will

be able to teach, learn and grow together as one commu-

nity.

If you have not done so already, please considering join-

ing our mailing list as we plan not only for the spiritu-

al formation and education of present and future gen-

erations of children, but for our own future, too.

Peace,

Raymond Saborio

Principal Class of 1985

S t . t ho m a s h er i t ag e

It has been a wonderfully rewarding year for the St. Thomas Heritage program and we are grateful to the community of alum-ni, friends and foundations that have sup-ported us. In spite of a very difficult econ-omy and the fact that many of our school families are struggling to keep their chil-dren in our school, we have been so blessed by the generosity of many. Our development efforts are about ensuring the future of a vibrant St. Thomas School. Your participation has been the inspiration and driving force behind our success.

We are closing our year having raised $164,253 and are now busy planning our goals and objectives for the next school year and the long-term future of St. Thom-as Heritage. Your support helped us pro-vide 143 students with scholarships; helped the school provide counseling ser-vices for students and families; provide support for our athletics; supported our school arts program; and supported our involvement in the Los Angeles Math Initi-ative. Simply put, your support is making a BIG difference! Thank you.

We are asking everyone to consider be-coming involved. If you are able to make a financial contribution, please do so. If you have experience in the development pro-cess or board activities, please consider offering your advice and expertise. If you know of someone that can help us, please send them our way. If you are able to con-tribute with your prayers and best wishes, please keep us in your thoughts.

We are hoping to involve you in our devel-

opment efforts. If you would like to con-

tribute, offer advice, or are interested in

being involved in sharing your expertise

with our school, please let us know. Thank

you for your consideration and participa-

tion in St. Thomas Heritage program. Have

a restful summer and may the peace and

joy of Christ’s love remain with you and

your families.

Humberto ‘Tito’ Rangel, Class of 1979 – Tito attended Loyola High School and completed a Bachelor’s Degree from California State University, Los Angeles in Criminal Justice and minored in Business Administration. He currently is the Resource Center Manager for MGO (a business management and accounting firm) in Century City, CA. He is happily married and currently has his daughter enrolled at St. Thomas School. He has recently had a new addition to the family, a boy and future member of the class of 2024! He is an avid motorcycle rider and a die hard Lak-ers fan. He continues to be a active part of the St. Thomas community and family because it “compares to no other and it is Simply the Best!” Linda Mora Santana, Class of 1962 - Linda attended Immaculate Heart High School and then completed a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from USC. After 37 years as a teacher and administrator for LAUSD she retired. She now serves as a consultant for the Riordan Foun-dation and LASDI (Los Angeles School Development Institute). She has three children: Rebecca, Sara and Alex. She is recently widowed and her husband Joseph P. Santana was also an admin-istrator for LAUSD. She lives in Hollywood and is an active member of Our Mother of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Los Feliz. She serves on the Pastoral Committee, as well as being a Lector and Eucharistic Minister. She loves to read, craft and go to the movies. Michael Burke, Class of 1985 - Michael attended Washington High School and then pursued a

successful career as a business entrepreneur. In 1994, Michael opened his first business, Eagle

Crating and Packaging – an innovative company in the shipping industry. Subsequently, Mi-

chael has opened additional businesses: he is owner of a construction and a structural design

company that works on commercial and residential projects. Michael lives in Rancho Cucamon-

ga and has four wonderful children. Michael’s heart is still connected to the community in

which he was raised. He has been taught to give back by his mother and St. Thomas School.

Thus, he has organized a non-profit foundation (Central District Foundation) in order to create

a post-secondary school aimed to help at risk students from the inner-city. His foundation has

recently received a $2.7 million grant to open his dream school.

We would love to hear from past St. Thomas graduates. If you have any updates or know others to add to the mailing list, please pass on this newsletter or fill out the enclosed inquiry and mail it back to us or email information to v.odonoghue@stthomasla.org Thank you and we hope to hear from you soon! Name

Class

Address

Phone

Email

Current News

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S t . t ho m a s h er i t ag e Page 3

S t . t ho m a s h er i t ag e

St. Thomas HERITAGE 2632 W. 15th Street

Los Angeles, CA 90006

(323) 737-4730

Rrring…it’s 7:55 a.m. and the bell rings. We hear that bell and know that its time to line up for morning announcements. We listen to our daily prayer, the pledge of allegiance, the peace builder pledge, the SLE of the month, the general announcements, and Mr. O’s announce-ments. We walk into our new library, new sci-ence lab, new gym, new kitchen, and see a new junior high teacher. We go through our daily routine of what we call our lives. The Class of 2011 is very welcoming so it was no surprise we welcomed the new teacher Mr. Lopez with open arms. He teaches Religion and Math to the Junior High Students, as well as Geography to 6th and 7th grade. Although we have had to adapt to Mr. Lopez since we had been used to Mrs. Wright teaching us Math and Religion; Mr. Lopez has quickly become family to our class. This year has been filled with many memories. Our class won 1st Place in the Halloween dance competition, our Christmas song is very memo-rable, most importantly, our class retreat to Santa Clarita. Mr. Santa Maria led the retreat, the Junior High teachers and Mr. O chaperoned. The day was filled with a hike where we shared spiritual activities; we experienced fluctuating weather that turned our adventure into a wild walk. We crossed little streams making our paths on top of logs, walking through bushes and finished our path with the beautiful sight of snow. For some of us it was the first time they we had seen snow. What a great day to experi-ence that! Through the activities that we had and the talks that we shared, it made us realize that we are not only friends but we are a family. As we are now in our last month of school, we have realized how close we are with each other and how much we are going to miss one anoth-

er. As our Graduation nears, it will be hard to leave a place that has become like a home to us. Many of us have been here since kinder-garten, including us two. Even though many things have changed, many are still the same. Entering the beginning of this school year, we still learned in the same main building, we still went to the office and turned things into Ms. Segura, and the 8th graders still walked the tiny, scared kindergartners to church. We en-tered this year knowing that it would be our last together but the reality of leaving each other hadn't really set in. The feeling of "I'm graduating. I'm going to leave," had not really shown itself until we took our cap and gown pictures. That is when everyone kind of realized "We're graduating! We're all going to leave!" That day was particularly sad, but at the same time we were all happy. Sharing in each others joy, telling each other we looked nice, compli-menting each other, it is all part of the process that all 8th grade classes have to go through. Mrs. Nowak told us that it was time to make any wrongs that we may have done, right. We usually do this through PeaceMail, a system of sending letters to each other in the class. We have all used this opportunity to apologize because we don't want to leave the school knowing we have done wrong. We all want to leave St. Thomas on a positive note and want to be able to smile and laugh carelessly with each other this last month. At St. Thomas, we are not students simply attending the school, but a family who loves each other dearly! I guarantee you, we will treasure this last month together as a class! We love this school and it will be hard to leave, but it is time to go and follow all the 8th graders before us and go on to high school. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue on to this big milestone in our life.

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Saint Thomas School will be hosting an all Open House on June 4th , 2011 from 2pm to 5pm. All graduates are invited to see and tour the new edu-cation campus at St. Thomas and hear the great news about what is happening at your Alma Mater. Please contact eh main office if you have any questions at 323.737.4730.

Everyone is invited to enjoy a glass of wine and reconnect with

classmates!

Bodega Wine Bar 260 E. Colorado Blvd.,

Pasadena, CA www.Bodegawinebar.com

626-793-4300 Thursday June 9th, 2011

6pm to 9pm