St. Louis School principal receives Excellence in Catholic Education Award

By Peggy Revell on March 14, 2018.

prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell

Donning her winter toque and a big smile, St. Louis School principal Sandra Richard was out early Tuesday morning to help the school’s safety patrol get students across the street safely, and welcoming all the children by name as they arrived.

It’s easy to see why Richard has been named by the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education’s recipient of the 2018 of the Excellence in Catholic Education Award.

“It’s very humbling,” said Richard, adding that the award is especially nice as she was nominated by the “fantastic” group of parents who are on the school council.

This is Richard’s second year as principal at St. Louis School, having served before as vice-principal at St. Patrick’s School, and numerous other local schools even before that.

“It’s a community and it’s a family, and down here at St. Louis, that’s who we are, a family,” said Richard.

Since becoming principal, Richard has started a leadership group with students so they can do service projects in the school and community.

“I wanted to have the kids actively involved in the community, in giving back to the community,” she said, emphasizing the connection of service to the Catholic faith.

The students’ work has included multiple projects, such as creating new games outside on the school yard for fellow students, to helping to raise funds for the food bank.

When it came to the food bank fundraiser, Richard agreed to let them duct tape her to the wall and throw whipped cream pies at her if they beat last year’s amount of food collected. The managed to collect 800 pounds, but that was just shy of last year’s amount.

That is, until Medicine Hat MP Glen Motz stepped in with a $100 donation — and the whipped cream pies went flying.

The annual award was developed by the Catholic Council of School Superintendents of Alberta, with each Catholic division from across the province

Richard is also greatly involved with the local Catholic church, including being a Eucharist minister, a lector,and on the RCIA team for those converting to the faith.

“It is a blessing to be in our school division, I am proud to be a Catholic educator,” she said.

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