Dads & Donuts gets off to a GREAT start!

Thanks to everyone who came to the initial Dads & Donuts event!

There were about 25 Dads who took the opportunity to bring their kids to SHCS that day and then hang out with a few of the other Dads. Several of us got to introduce ourselves to the dads of our children's classmates.

We'll do it again this and every Friday ... hope to see you there!

P.S. Remember ... the donuts are for your KIDS! So leave your house a few minutes early with them, be together, do something special, and start building some memories! In the spirit of Lent, we won't provide donuts at this Friday's event.

Travel Boy Scouts

Ok, you have all heard or likely been involved in travel sports, but this past weekend I had a new experience of "travel" boy scouts. Sounds odd this day in age of ever increasing competitive sports etc.. But what a great weekend we had and educational and fun as well.


Thanks to Sacred Heart pack leader Dave Wells and Jackie Birdwell, the trip organizer... over 60 folks from Sacred Heart made the trek to Savannah, GA for Presidents weekend.

It was great family time, as evidenced by the Velas family in this picture (Dad is taking the picture). The trip included a bus tour of Savannah, tour of Ft. Jackson, trip to Tybee island marine center and lighthouse and ended with a moroccan dinner that for many was unforgettable.

The other highlight of the trip was a visit to the Eighth Air Force Museum. The scouts had the honor of meeting a WWII veteran named Ray, who told us of his experience being shot down over Germany. Ray was a navigator in a B-17 bomber at the age of 19. On his 13th mission, his plane ran into trouble. Trouble, as in being shot at by German warplanes and anti-aircraft guns from the ground. His plane had lost 3 of 4 engines and the order had been given to bailout. Unfortunately, Ray's escape hatch had frozen shut and wouldn't open. Why frozen? Well Ray informed us that the average temperature in the planes was about 20 below zero and this cold had an adverse effect on his bladder. He needed to urinate frequently and therefore kept a trusty bottle at his side. However, with the rough ride they were on in this mission, this cup had spilled over onto his escape hatch and had frozen. He and his partner tried for several minutes to open the hatch, while everyone else had already bailed out and the plane was on autopilot with single engine keeping it aloft. Finally, they decided to parachute from another hatch and did so successfully. Amazingly, the extra time turned out to be a huge blessing. He successfully parachuted into a friendly portion of France, while several of the other crew had been captured or killed while parachuting into Germany. Hard to believe that frozen urine would make such an impact on his life. Sounds like divine intervention perhaps?

Thanks to all who planned and organized this trip. Great weekend of family time with "travel" boyscouts... and I think we all came home victorious -- a few stories, good memories and time with our kids. Who needs a trophy??

Dads & Donuts starts THIS FRIDAY (2/20/09)

Who: ALL SACRED HEART DADS
What: Dads & Donuts
Where: Shea Room
When: 7:45-8:30 AM Every Friday

Dads, bring your kids to school on Fridays ... in fact, leave early and have a special weekly dad-session; that's sure to create memories that will last forever. But don't be late for school!

After you've had your special time, join MASH in the Shea Room. We'll bring the donuts, coffee, and name tags. Our goal is to connect with our kids, SHCS, and other dads.

Dads & Donuts will not have a formal agenda, but we'll have a featured guest from the school on most Fridays so we can hear about what's going on at Sacred Heart. We will also get to know each other so we'll have a clue about what our wives are talking about when they mention something about so-and-so's mother/father!

Monthly Schedule:

• 1st Fridays: All-School Mass ... what better way to support SHCS & our kids?!
• 2nd Fridays: Featured guest, SHCS Principal Sedonna Prater
• 3rd Fridays: Pending commitment ... stay tuned
• 4th Fridays: Open Session

Questions? Suggestions? Put 'em in the box ... or contact Don Naab!

Goal for Week 1: Try to accurately anticpate how many donuts we'll need.

MASH Website!!!

MASH now has it's very own webpage on the Sacred Heart website. Please check it out by hitting the MASH website in the left column of this page under Links. Thanks to Pam Rhoades and Robb Morris for their help in getting this page setup. Our hope is that this page will allow more men to discover MASH and get involved at SHCS.

Also, MASH was featured in Sacred Heart's Community Newsletter. If you didn't see it, you can click on the link under MASH News.

Thanks for the feedback on the blog. Hoping all these things will assist us men keep informed on all things related to our kids and SHCS. Feel free to leave comments on this blog -- near the bottom of each post, just click "comments."

Peace and Goodness to everyone and enjoy the school holidays this weekend.

Ice Bears

Thanks to all who attended the Ice Bears game on Friday night and to John Patterson for organizing. It was a great night of cotton candy, popcorn, weiner dog races and also a little bit of hockey. The kids all seemed to have a great time getting together and enjoyed watching their faces as the horn blew for another Ice Bears goal. Overall, we had about 70 people in our MASH group. Look forward to doing this again next year.