Retired sisters give reading program a boost

Intermountain Catholic

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Holy Cross Sister Mary Pius Schreiner helps a student with spelling, which is a part of the reading program. Sr. Mary Pius is retired but loves working with children.

PARK CITY — Retired Holy Cross Sisters Carmel Marie Sallows and Mary Pius Schreiner traveled from Saint Mary’s Convent in Notre Dame, Ind., to volunteer with Holy Cross Ministries’ Summer Reading Program at Saint Mary of the Assumption Church in Park City.

Sisters Carmel Marie and Mary Pius arrived in Park City June 22, and they returned to Saint Mary’s Convent July 9.

"The reason we are leaving so soon is because we have work to do at home," said Sr. Carmel Marie.

"I work at the Basilica on the campus of the University of Notre Dame," said Sr. Mary Pius. "We came out to volunteer in Park City because Holy Cross Sister Mary Ann Pajakowski, secretary of Holy Cross Ministries in Salt Lake City, told us they would like some sisters to help with the Summer Reading Program because there are so many children who need help. We are both retired teachers, but you do not lose the knack of teaching because you are doing something else."

Sr. Mary Pius, who is from Pennsylvania, taught mostly first and second grade in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania before going to Saint Mary’s.

Sr. Carmel Marie presently assists in the library at Saint Joseph High School in South Bend, Ind. She taught kindergarten, first, and second grade. She is from the Midwest. Her first mission was in Chicago, then Peoria, Illinois. Sr. Carmel Marie also spent time in Anderson, Laporte, Michigan City, and South Bend, in Indiana.

"We met Sister Suzanne Brennen, director of Holy Cross Ministries, and Sr. Mary Ann at a Holy Cross meeting held in Chicago in November," said Sr. Carmel Marie. "They asked us if we were interested in coming to help the children learn to read. We like to do at least one ministry other than our own during the year because it gives us something special to do, and we both like working with little children a lot.

"The children here are slow to average, but we work with some on a one-to-one basis hoping that will help them with their regular school work," said Sr. Mary Pius. "We want them to want to go to school. This program is really wonderful because they have other activities besides just school work. They have science, hiking, swimming, and tennis. They planted a garden for science. They have music, art, and dancing, so it is not just continuous reading or math all day. They have different instructors for each activity. When we pull out the slower students to help them, they do not feel singled out because they stay right along with the rest of the group.

"We think it is very important for children to learn their phonics because then they can sound out the words they do not know," said Sr. Marie Carmel. "They need that foundation, or they will be lost from one grade to the next."

"We also eat lunch with them, so we are not to strange to them," said Sr. Mary Pius.

"It is interesting to see how they interact with the other children, how they play before class starts, what they do during their breaks, and what they do while swimming and hiking," said Sr. Carmel Marie. Having all these activities encourages them to come to school during the summer."

The students who attend the Summer School program are in kindergarten through sixth grade and they are from the Latino community in Park City.

"Most of the children who are enrolled in the Summer Program participate in our After School Program during the school year, which is held at Saint Mary of the Assumption Church" said Tim Jackson, Holy Cross Ministries coordinator for the Summer and After School programs. "We have 95 students enrolled this summer, and they are primarily from Jeremy Ranch Elementary School and Parley’s Park Elementary School because of transportation limitations. We also work closely with the English-as-a Second-Language (ESL) teachers to select the students.

"We try to enroll the students based on needs because there is a lot more need than there is room to provide services," said Jackson. "So it works out that we have just about the right capacity.

"These students also include the students who will enter Ecker Hill Middle School in Park City," said Jackson. "We have about 15 youth volunteers who attend Treasure Mountain Junior High School, who were previous participants in our program, or older siblings of students who are now in the program.

"There are some key areas we work on with the students," said Jackson. "The one that really got the program started was providing a safe, healthy environment for the kids so they would not be home alone and unsupervised. But since then, we have been focusing a lot on helping support them academically. We have been collaborating with the ESL programs with the primary schools and the homeroom teachers to provide academic support.

"We are also working with the parents more, because if we do not there is a piece missing. The parents really need to be involved as well," said Jackson. "So we have offered some parenting classes to teach the parents how to be familiar with the needs of the students. That is something we will focus more on in the future. We want the parents to be a good influence for the children and be supportive and encourage them at home.

"The students attend summer school seven hours a day, five days each week, and they go to school for 10 months" said Jackson. "We want them to have fun, for this to be a positive experience, and something they are going to enjoy. At the same time, we want to encourage them to speak English all summer and support them in their reading. We plan fun activities and things they would not necessarily be able to do on their own. This way we can broaden their world a little and expose them to more things like swimming at Ecker Hill Junior High School.

"Park City Racquet Club has also offered free services to teach the kids tennis lessons," said Jackson. "We also are taking them on hikes in Deer Valley, Park City, and on the trail behind the church."

Jackson said there are also a number of artists from the Utah Arts Council who have come to work with the students throughout the course of the summer in music and arts and crafts.