At the Junior High FFA End of Year event, Sean Martin (left) and paraprofessional Marc Riederer (right), helped to make the paper flowers for the service project.

This is one of the groups of FFA members that conducted safety games outside of Sleepy Eye Public on Tuesday, May 18th. Pictured l to r – Envy Morales, Mateo Hornsby, Ellen Windschitl, Isaac Lendt, Winsten Nienhaus, Leisha Martinez, Morgan Hoffmann, and Lydia Huiras.

As the school year wrapped up, Sleepy Eye FFA members were busy living to serve. The first project that members were involved with was helping with the End of the Year Fair for pre-K through elementary students. Members conducted six different safety games for the youth. The FFA members included: Isaac Lendt, Winsten Nienhaus, Envy Morales, Morgan Hoffmann, Hailey Meinart, Ellen Windschitl, Mateo Hornsby, Leisha Martinez, Katelyn Capacia, Miah Brown, and Lydia Huiras.

The second service project that members and landscape class students helped with was making flower door decorations for assisted living residents. Eleven junior high students: Chloe Dolly, Sean Martin, Mateo Hornsby, Hayden Zeig, Noah Rossbach, Jaelynn Schauman, Hana Meyer, Sam Price, Taylor Berkner, Emilie Muehlbauer, and Damazion Porter. Landscape class members include: Kadon Strong, Miranda Rendon, Jenny Piotter, Alyssa Romberg, Allen Arneson, Mason Thoms, Trenton Nachreiner, Mckenna Dockter, Trisha Ludewig, Jadon Schroepfer, Macey Ludewig, Jared Freestone, McKenzie Mertz, Lexanna Lazatin, Taylor Lambrecht, Logan Stern, and Jasmyne Windschitl.

The Sleepy Eye FFA is gearing up for a summer full of service, career investigation, and leadership training!

St. Mary’s 100 Point Club

Members of the St. Mary’s 100 Accelerated Reader Point Club: (back row): Landry Folkens, Landon Plotz, William Murphy, Travis Mages, Millie Lax, Olivia Schieffert, Kate Windschitl, and Audra Hoffmann. (Front row): Nolan Kucera, Jalen Brandl, Ethan Hinderman, Lauren Steffl, Jessalyn Sellner, Berkley Brandl and Ruby Tauer.

St. Mary’s fifth graders who earned the President’s Education Award. This award recognizes students who have maintained a B+ or higher average since third grade. Congratulations to (back row) Landry Folkens, Elijah Hoffmann, Olivia Schieffert, William Murphy, Imaan Sidhu, (front row), Travis Mages, Ethan Hinderman, Millie Lax, Isaac Christensen and Jared Portner.

members of the St. Mary’s 250 Accelerated Reader Point Club: Jack Balko, Jared Portner, Scarlett Armbruster, Dustin Portner, and Darrin Mathiowetz!

St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School celebrated VIP Day on Monday, May 17.  Due to COVID restrictions, it was not possible to hold the traditional Grandparents’ Day celebration. Instead, St. Mary’s held VIP Day to recognize all of the Very Important People in our students’ and staff’s lives.  Grandparents, family members, and other special people were invited to send a letter or card to the elementary students. On VIP Day, the mail was distributed and read, much to the students’ and staff’s enjoyment. In addition, elementary principal Mary Gangelhoff read stories about grandparents over the PA, the students had a special dessert at lunch and a fun treat in the afternoon, the fifth graders recorded a poem about grandparents for Facebook, and all of the students took their pictures by the “A VIP Loves Me” sign. It was a wonderful celebration of all of the important people in our important students’ and staff’s lives.

By: Leisha Martínez, Chapter Reporter

Winsten Nienhaus is in 9th grade and has been in FFA for three years. He originally joined FFA to get his family and himself more involved in the community, now he’s willing to do anything to hang out with his friends. Winsten is on the Poultry CDE team and he likes judging, looking at eggs, and identifying the meat cuts. For his SAE, Winsten works at Carl’s Corner where he prepares food and pizzas. One of his favorite FFA activities is playing volleyball during the high school meetings. Winsten is looking forward to our summer FFA and  Timberland Camp. Through FFA and Ag. Classes, Winsten has learned more about poultry. The awards he is most proud of include the Discovery FFA Degree, Greenhand Degree, and Phoenix Award and Winsten was on the Jr. Officer Team.

Emma Braulick is in 10th grade and has been in FFA for two years. Emma joined FFA to get more involved with the school activities. She didn’t realize how much she would enjoy being involved and getting to learn about agriculture and leadership. Emma is on the Floriculture CDE Team. She joined the team because she loves learning about new things, plants, and especially flowers. Her favorite FFA activity is the FFA lock-in. Next year she’s hoping to make it to nationals, and attend more FFA trips, meetings and fun events. Emma has also learned that almost everything in the world is impacted by agriculture and how important it is to understand all the agricultural aspects. The awards Emma is most proud of is being on the 2nd place team in the state for Floriculture and getting 1st at Regions this year.

Morgan Hoffmann is in 11th grade and has been in FFA for five years. Morgan joined FFA because it has always been a part of her life. She’s always wanted to become a part of the FFA family and community. Morgan is serving as the President of the senior high Chapter Officer Team. She likes being a leader and a role model to others that can look up to her.  Morgan is also on the Floriculture team and she has learned all about the different types of flowers and putting together different types of arrangements. Morgan’s SAE project is Agricultural Communications where she makes videos, creates social media posts to inform the public about ag and FFA, and does radio and TV interviews.  She also began a new SAE by working in the Floral Department at HyVee. Her favorite FFA activities are the service projects and leadership camps. She is looking forward to summer events and doing more service projects. Through Ag. Classes and FFA, she’s learned to have more confidence in herself, as well as many skills that will help her in any future career. Morgan is proud of receiving the Blue and Gold Award, 2nd place in State for Floriculture, Sophomore Achievement Award and Star Greenhand.

Carmen Lendt is an 11th grader and has been in FFA for five years. She joined FFA due to her family being in FFA and she loves everything that FFA has done for the school, community and all the opportunities it has given to people. Carmen was a Chapter Reporter this year and will be serving as Secretary for our high school Chapter Officer Team in 2021-22. She likes being the secretary and she’s really looking forward to having a position with more responsibilities. Carmen’s CDE is Ag Sales and she likes the team due to the fact that it has really helped her to be more confident in talking to people. Her favorite activity is the FFA drive-in that we hosted in the fall after a meeting. Carmen is really looking forward to being an officer again next year and spending time with her teammates. FFA has helped her gain confidence and has given her so many opportunities. Carmen is proud of this Member of the Month Award.

The 2021 St. Mary’s High School Minnesota Honor Society inductees: (from left): Emily Helget, Liz Schwint, Annika Nosbush, Mckenna Larson, Katelyn Rutscher, Natalie Marti, Abby Schwartz and Lacey Mathiowetz.

Sleepy Eye School Patroller of the Month for April is 6th grade Jace Schauman  “She patrols with responsibility and always has a smile on her face.”

St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School was honored to join with the residents of the Divine Providence Community Home for a beautiful May crowning celebration on Monday, May 10, 2021. Because of COVID restrictions, the crowning of Our Blessed Mother took place outdoors in the Divine Providence courtyard. Every student in the elementary school (preK-grade 5) presented a flower to Mary and fifth graders Olivia Schieffert and Millie Lax had the honor of placing the crown of flowers on Mary. The ceremony also included the singing of Marian hymns such as “Immaculate Mary”, “Hail Mary”, “Song of Mary’, and “Hail Holy Queen”. Prayers were offered to Mary including the “Act of Consecration”, “The Angelus”, “Hail Mary” with actions” and a “Litany to the Blessed Virgin Mary”. The May crowning celebration is a long honored tradition for our school and parish as we honor our patroness, Mary, Help of Christians.

Arbor Day is normally celebrated in Sleepy Eye with a wonderful program for local 4th graders put on by the City of Sleepy Eye. This year, however, COVID restrictions didn’t allow for the program to take place. It’s hard to top the city’s program with Mayor Pelzel’s jokes and history, expert knowledge of planting trees, and performances by the students. Sleepy Eye Public 4th grade students did their best to still celebrate their own Arbor Day on April 30 by planting a sugar maple in front of the school. Students learned the history and importance of Arbor Day and then planted their own tree. Students will get to watch their tree grow over the course of the years to come and possibly recreate the picture by the tree when they graduate.