Catholic Schools week at Benilde-St.Margaret’s brings a lot of excitement to the halls. It is celebrated every year throughout all Catholic schools in the United States to honor Catholic education. This is the 48th year of the annual celebration.

The overall theme for Catholic schools week this year was “Catholic Schools: Faith. Excellence. Service.” At BSM, the student council took this to a different level and created themes or dress ups for each day of the week. The themes included USA/olympics day, denim day, dress your best day, jersey day, and spirit day. “Denim day was my favorite day because I got to bring my denim jeans out of the closet for the day and show it off,” sophomore Drew Stewart said.

There are many themes that are chosen from each year, but the possibility to suggest is always open. “I would suggest adding a dress as your favorite celebrity day and I would choose to dress up as the Russian influencer Hasbulla,” senior Gino Gatti said.

On Monday, the theme of the day was “Celebrating our Community” and on Monday night, there was a ceremony held in the great hall for the “Hall of Honor.” The Hall of Honor is to honor specific people in the BSM community who go above and beyond to strengthen our community.

This year four different types of awards were presented. The Red Knight Leadership award, which was given to Tom and Stephanie Drees, Mark and Heather Scherer, and Shay and Brenda Wyley. The Distinguished Alumni award was given to Tricia Huntley, Michael Allen, and Michael Mahler. The Volunteer Service award was given to Linda Bauer, Dan Cooley, Joe Peterson, and Jenifer Williams. This year’s Twenty-Year Club Inductees, faculty and staff who have been with BSM for twenty years, were Amanda Anderson, Abigail Baker, Casey Hanson, Fred Hennen, Greg Hoemke, Amy Larson, and Anna Overbo.

Many students whose parents were receiving an award attended the event, one of them being senior Sydney Drees. “At the Hall of Honor ceremony both of my parents talked and it was really cool seeing them get the [Red Knight Leadership] award. It also opened my eyes to how much they do behind the scenes,” Drees said.

On Wednesday, the theme for the day was “Celebrating our Nation.” In honor of this, BSM had our annual Catholic Schools Week mass. While not everyone was physically able to attend the mass, all students were still able to receive communion from senior eucaristic ministers, teachers, faculty, and staff. Cassi Gonyea is among the eucharistic ministers who handed out communion. “I am a eucharistic minister…I was handing out communion in the chapel…it was freshmen and sophomores. It was pretty fun seeing a lot of faces I don’t normally see on a day to day basis,” senior Cassi Gonyea said.

“Celebrating Vocations” was the theme for Thursday. The BSM community gathered once again with the senior class in the Great Hall and all other grades zooming in from their homerooms. The entire school listened to BSM alum Paul Fried and his wife Sara from Lake City Catholic Worker Farm share their message about hospitality After their speech, the Red Knotes performed three songs. “The speakers from today had a very powerful message and it stuck with me that I have to remember God supports me…I also really enjoyed the Red Knotes songs. They were very good,” sophomore Julia Evens said.

To finish out the week, Friday’s theme was “Celebrating our Faculty, Staff, and Volunteers.” The halls were filled with lots of red and white school spirit as everyone was excited for the weekend. A faculty and staff breakfast took place in the morning to acknowledge all the hard work that has been put into our school and students and all the work that is to come. The parent association hosted adoration in the chapel throughout the day that anyone was welcome to attend. “It was super cool to see all the senior girls wearing their overalls today…I look forward to doing this senior year,” sophomore Lauren Hillins said.