De La Salle St Helens Founder’s Day 2022
On Friday July 1st, De La Salle School St Helens, dedicated a day to celebrate our Founder, St John Baptist De la Salle, and the work he has done. He had a positive impact on the education system which is shown as 1 million students are taught in Lasallian schools across the globe. Without him, we would not be apart of a community that most of us call our family.
The day began setting up stalls for later in the day to allow everything to run smoothly. This consisted of setting up the tuck shop, organising the goals for cross bar challenge and arranging tug of war to ensure everything was safe. Whilst the 1719 society were doing this, others in form were watching the District Founder’s Day video. This is an important part of the day as it connects us to those around the world and makes us realise that we are not alone but apart of something much bigger.
After this, half of the school set up and went to church whilst the other half completed an art activity. The art activity was inspired by the famous quote from Mother Theresa, ‘I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.’ Within this dedicated period, you had the mission of learning to quill which is an art technique. When done correctly, this can look like ripples that spread across water when a stone is thrown. Everyone within the class was to make their own which by the end of the lesson had been attached to everyone else’s within the class to symbolise the massive difference we can make to the world when we work together. Some classes even displayed their work onto the wall which looked amazing! It is now a constant reminder of this day and the message it symbolises.
The 1719 society was now left with the pressure of making sure the next event in the day ran smoothly. Our job was to run the stalls we had planned but most importantly to make sure everyone had a good time. The tuck shop, cross bar challenge, tug of war and face paint were all extremely successful. Due to our planning and calm manner on the day, everything ran smoothly, and standards are set even higher for next year. Whilst we had our own stalls set up, we were also lucky enough that Mr Hale organised for two ice cream vans to attend the day. Many looked forward to the ice cream which can be seen by the massive queue in the photo to the right.
Our day ended in a reflective and peaceful manner with church led by Father Mark in St Theresa’s which is just a short walk from our school. In the mass, we honoured our founder in the way he deserves. The school choir sung beautifully to hymns and led us all be example. This was a time to listen to readings, pray for any worries and take in the events of the day. This was the perfect end to an all-around successful day.
