Dear Parents and Students,
December 8 was not your normal day at SJND. We first started Saturday morning with the Second Annual Reindeer Run which attracted a little over 200 runners to the event. This year’s race was even bigger and better than our first year. Special thanks to Julie Guevara, Chris Pondok, and Tony Fong for their herculean efforts.
On Saturday night the Basilica was nearly fully as we watched a truly amazing performance of our choral group, One Voice, under the direction of Ms. Lanessa Vantrease. Our students singing left me and almost everyone in the Basilica quiet in awe, and by the end of the night, standing on our feet with applause. God was smiling down from heaven this night.
In the midst of these two great events in the life of our school, I was equally moved by two seemingly small, unrecognized, yet deeply meaningful acts of service by Ms. Paula Cekola and her Pep Band and Julie Guevara and her team.
The Pep Band played Christmas songs at the Reindeer Run in the morning, and still they quietly made their way over, after the Reindeer Run, to a local nursing home to play Christmas songs for our elderly, many of whom would not enjoy the Christmas spirit without our students and the leadership of Ms. Cekola.
On Sunday, Julie Guevara and a small band of merry helpers delivered the collected gifts of the Adopt-a-Family Christmas Program, so that kids whose parents cannot afford Christmas gifts this year can be the beneficiaries of the kindness of the SJND community.
As the Principal of SJND, I am moved on a daily basis by these small acts of kindness exemplified in this community. I know of so many faculty and staff members who quietly and unobtrusively perform acts of kindness and love for their students; I know of many parents who quietly sacrifice so much for their sons and daughters; I know of so many students who bravely perform random acts of kindness.
Advent teaches us that God is found in the small acts of kindness, the whisper, and all of those daily acts of self-sacrifice that go unnoticed - like Ms. Cekola taking her Pep Band to a nursing home on the second Saturday of December or Ms. Guevara being a Santa for children - in a world of inflated egos, narcissistic acts for show, and superficial sacrifice, it is good to know that God can still be found in these hidden pockets in Alameda.
As always, thank you for all that you do. Go Pilots!
Mr. Jennings
