Maeser Updates: 20 March 2020

In This Edition

Message From Our Board & Administration; Senior Class Truth, Honor, Virtue Challenge

Message From Our Board & Administration

Dear Maeser Families & Students,

We are counting Wednesday as a success! We woke up to an earthquake and ended our day with the sun starting to poke through the clouds. We hope that everyone who needed textbooks, Socratic novels, reading materials, items from lockers, or a chromebook were able to come. It was nice to see students and connect for just a moment face to face. We will now see you online!

If you have not heard from a specific teacher yet, please feel free to reach out to them via email. If you missed Wednesday and still need material, please email your teacher directly. We can leave materials for you at the school for pick-up by appointment. Google classrooms are up and ready to go. Several classes have already met via google meet. It’s different, but it is the world we live in right now.

We feel very strongly that as a Maeser community we need the connection to keep some sense of normalcy and purpose. We understand that the online platform may not be your favorite and it isn’t ours either, but we are going to make lemonade out of the lemons we’ve been given.

The building is now closed. We are available through email to assist you. Please refer HS questions to Mr. Simmons at dustin.simmons@maeserprep.org; MS questions to Mr. Norris at jared.norris@maeserprep.org; or overall to Mrs. Ellis at robyn.ellis@maeserprep.org. We will keep you updated on any school changes through our weekly Maeser Updates and Facebook page. The FAQs will be very helpful to keep handy. We will also update that as new things come in.

On behalf of our Maeser Board, Maeser Administration, Faculty, and Staff, we feel honored to take this journey with you. We will indeed all gain wisdom from this experience together.

Senior Class Truth, Honor, Virtue Challenge

We hope you are all safe and doing well! The Senior Class Student Council misses everyone so much and hopes that all will soon be okay so that we can once again see each other in the Maeser hallways and classrooms!

Even though these next few weeks for school are going to be different, we still want to make the most out of these last few months of our senior year! We feel as though this time, although challenging, gives us all a perfect opportunity to serve and spread love to each other as well as to those in our communities.

To help keep us all connected and focused on the important principles we stand for here at Maeser, we have created the “Maeser Seniors 2020: Truth, Honor, Virtue Challenge.” For each principle, we have identified a specific NEED in our communities. We have then created a CHALLENGE to help address that need. The details are listed below:

TRUTH

NEED: Healthcare workers are feeling overwhelmed and unappreciated as they work around the clock to try to provide service to people in need. We should show our love and gratitude!

CHALLENGE: Starting on Monday, March 23rd, and continuing for the next 3 Mondays, Seniors can drop off a treat (homemade or store bought) in the main hallway of the school from 10:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m. Members of the Senior Class Student Council will be there to take your treat and add a Thank You Note from our Senior Class. Either a teacher or a council member will then deliver the treats to Timpanogos Regional Hospital, Orem Community Hospital, and Utah Valley Regional Hospital. All you have to do is drop something off. It can be as simple as a bag of candy. In order to better coordinate this project, please sign up for specific Mondays using the link in the email Mr. Simmons sent out yesterday.

HONOR

NEED: The American Red Cross has announced that they expect the demand in the coming weeks for blood to surge and they are desperately in need of blood donations.

CHALLENGE: We challenge each healthy Maeser Senior to visit the Orem Blood Donation Center, located at 384 E. University Parkway in Orem and donate blood at least once during these next few weeks. We will be posting the times that the Orem Blood Donation Center will be open for donations on the Senior Classroom! Please visit their website below to make your appointment! Also, while you are there, please snap a photo of yourself donating and send it to shirona.gallacher@maeserprep.org. We will use these photos to promote this important cause to others!

https://www.redcross.org/give-blood.html

VIRTUE

NEED: Seniors serving seniors! Many of the senior citizens in our communities are not able to be out in crowds during this time. Therefore, we want to provide them with as much love and support as we can show!

CHALLENGE: There are many different ways in which we can help! Here are a few ideas we came up and if you have others, please share them with the class:

Reach out directly to senior citizens in your neighborhoods and make arrangements to pick up and deliver their groceries or drop off or pick up their mail.

As it continues to get warmer, provide yard work for a senior citizen

Become a penpal to a senior in a care facility by sending handwritten notes and photos to help them feel loved and connected!

Don’t forget to send any photos to shirona.gallacher@maeserprep.org so that we can post all the wonderful things that our Senior class is doing!

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” – Mr. Rogers

We are definitely going through some scary times. Whether it is social distancing, coronavirus or waking up to an earthquake, it is all a little unsettling. However, we as a Senior class are choosing to be “Helpers”! PLEASE JOIN US!