Elliot Lake's two elementary Catholic schools held vehicle parades this week to celebrate Catholic Education Week. And in keeping with COVID-19 distancing restrictions, staff, parents and students from Our Lady of Lourdes French Immersion Catholic School (OLOL) and Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School (OLOF), celebrated the faith with vehicle parades and participation by school supporters along the routes travelled.
The Lourdes parade took place on Monday and the Fatima parade was held on Wednesday and proved to be the highlight of the week-long celebrations. Both parades were approved by the City of Elliot Lake, Algoma Public Health and the OPP. The theme for the week is 'Igniting Hope'.
At Fatima, money was raised for the Elliot Lake Food Bank and the Lourdes parade saw donations of crayons and colouring books delivered to students and those entering Kindergarten in September in the city, Serpent River First Nation and Cutler while practicing safe distancing.
“This is a special week for all our school communities. It provides an opportunity for them to celebrate the gift of public education and show the greater community all of the exciting things happening in our school,” Fatima principal Andrew Chi said. “Fatima would like to still take part in the Justice Walk as OLOF’s Justice Parade. This year a money donation was given on behalf of Fatima staff and students from Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School to our local Elliot Lake Food Bank.”
At home activities were also planned.
“This is a true testament of how our school community is ‘Igniting Hope’,” Lourdes principal Stephane Prevost said. “Once again I commend our teachers and support staff for their outreach to all our students and their families during the parade. It was great being part of this positive energy.”
“I thought the parade was really fun,” Lourdes student Emma Mongrain said. “I love everything about it because I got to see all my teachers.”
“I love getting the crayons and I love colouring,” Maisy Mongrain added.
“The parade was very, very nice,” Michael and James Mongrain said.
The Fatima parade had 20 brightly adorned vehicles and the Lourdes parade had 18 vehicles.