Celebrating Catholic Schools Week in Lynbrook, East Rockaway

Students at St. Raymond’s represented their favorite sports teams as part of the week’s activities.

Courtesy St. Raymond's

At Our Lady of Peace in Lynbrook, the students wore “OLP Strong” shirts to inspire unity.

Courtesy Our Lady of Peace

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Catholic Schools Week was recently celebrated at Our Lady of Peace School in Lynbrook and St. Raymond’s Parochial School in East Rockaway, where recently installed Bishop John Barres made a special appearance.

“It just made us feel very happy and blessed because he was only installed on [Jan. 31],” said St. Raymond’s Principal Ruthanne Gypalo. “So to have him come to us the very first week, it just made the celebration of our 90th anniversary very special.”

Barres celebrated the closing mass with the students and faculty at St. Raymond’s in what was the culmination of a busy week of events. The celebration kicked off with the opening mass on Jan. 29 and concluded with the first reconciliation for second graders on Feb. 4. In between, special themed days such as Career Day and Buddy Day were held.

At Our Lady of Peace School in Lynbrook, the week began with an opening mass that featured the school choir singing. It was the very first time that students performed to ring in Catholic Schools Week.

School Principal Jineen Leach said that there were many special events throughout the week, but Spirit Day stood out to her. During that day, students wore shirts representing sports teams and clubs from OLP, and had a pep rally before engaging in different games.

“It was really the highlight of our week,” Leach said of Spirit Day. “Each event is special in its own way, but that’s when you see our school spirit come alive and the support for our teams.”