This year, Catholic Education Week runs the first week of May, and schools within the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools in Alberta ironed out plans last year that honoured and celebrated the Catholic education spirit.

 CCSTA wants to highlight all the good things these schools did last year to inspire us to honour this year’s celebrations. It’s also a time to prepare for World Catholic Education Day, which happens on May 25, 2017.

 Every year, 40 days after Easter on Ascension Thursday, Catholics across the globe give thanks for the gift that is Catholic education through the celebration of World Catholic Education Day.

 The Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools put together an impressive week-long schedule that involved nature, prayer, kindness, and more.

 To get us inspired for the week, here’s just a sample of their schools’ activities from 2016:

Read more: How Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools Celebrated Catholic Education Week

Alberta’s Adriana LaGrange has been elected as the CCSTA Vice President and it couldn’t be a more fitting role.

Following the passing of Vice President Tony Sykora in January, the CCSTA felt the void of Tony’s passion for education. Sykora, who hailed from Alberta, played a big role in Alberta’s Catholic education platform – as does LaGrange.

“It’s such a meaningful fit to have Adriana accept the Vice President role to fill Tony’s spot,” says CCSTA Executive Director Julian Hanlon.

Adriana LaGrange was first elected to the Board of Trustees of Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools in 2007 and has spent three of those years as Board Chair and Vice Chair for another two. She has long been involved in Catholic education and her community taking on numerous volunteer and committee opportunities. Adriana currently lives in rural Red Deer with her husband of 32+ years, is a mother of seven children and a grandmother of three. She holds an honours diploma in Rehabilitation and Disability Studies and also owns and operates a family farm in addition to managing the trucking of a large hog partnership.

Adriana was elected to be the President of the Alberta Catholic Trustees' Association (ACSTA) in November 2015 and re-elected to the president's position in November 2016. This put her in to serve as the Alberta representative for the CCSTA Board of Directors.

Read more: CCSTA Welcomes Adriana LaGrange as Vice President

Since it first launched six years ago, and online Catholic Schools run out of BC has garnered province-wide – and international – attention.  

Founded by Bishop David Monroe in April 2011, ASCEND Online, which stands for All Saints Catholic E-school Network Delivered Online, is the sixth school to operate under the direction of the Catholic Independent Schools of the Kamloops Diocese (CISKD) and is the first Catholic homeschool option in Canada directly supported by a diocese. Its mission is to support Catholic families in their role as the primary educators of their children. 

Kelly Tries, Superintendent of of CISKD and Principal at ASCEND Online says the idea for an online Distributed Learning school for Catholics was discussed among the Catholic superintendents of BC for a few years before ASCEND came into being. 

Read more: Online Catholic School offered by Kamloops Catholic Schools sees growth