The campus was unusually quiet over the weekend. Many of the students got checked out by their families to enjoy some activities over the long holiday weekend. On Sunday, we had a much smaller than usual crowd for mass as well. Several of the homes were gone on day trips – some made a run to the South Dakota State Fair in Huron. Others went to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to take in the LifeLight Christian Music Festival.
On Sunday our SCJ community hosted four overseas visitors. Three priests from Indonesia and one from Venezuela have been studying English this summer before they return to Rome for advanced degrees in Formation and Spirituality. They decided to take advantage of the long weekend and explore the South Dakota prairies.
Although today there were no classes, the campus sprang back to life as students poured back onto campus. A treat for Labor Day was a trip to downtown Chamberlain to the movies. It’s about a mile away and most of the homes walked down. We practically filled up the theater with just our St. Joseph’s kids. While “Smurfs 3D” is not exactly a cinematic masterpiece, I was chaperoning 1st – 3rd grade girls and their laughter and glee made the movie going experience unforgettable for me.
As each child came into the theater, they got a pop and popcorn. Rose is a new third grader this year, and she remarked, “Did St. Joseph’s pay for all this? That’s really nice of you!” I appreciated her gratitude and explained to her that I didn’t deserve the thanks as much as the many folks who send donations in so our students can have some fun once in a while, in addition to being able to run all the good school and home programs we have.
We ended the day with a cookout in Wisdom Circle before the students had to go inside for showers, homework time and to get ready to start another full school week.
