Dear St. Mary’s Dads,
My name is Marc Hallee, and our family is new to Temple, TX and St. Mary’s Catholic School. I began a job at Scott & White in January as the Chief Human Resources Officer, and after several months of commuting back and forth to Chicago, my family relocated with me to Temple in August. My wife Michele and I have always valued a Catholic education for our fifth grade son, Jack. He has attended Catholic school since kindergarten, and we are very happy to be part of the St. Mary’s family.
Recently, I met with Mr. Melone to discuss an idea I was part of in Illinois at another Catholic school. We called it the Father’s Club, and its mission was simple. We came together as a bunch of Dads to do good things for the school and the kids while having fun at the same time. We sponsored fundraising events, we did projects around the school, we supported the annual church picnic, and we organized social outings (some with families, and some with just the Dads). In a normal year, we would raise $10,000 - $15,000 for the school and get a lot of projects done the school could not afford if it had to pay outsiders to help. Examples include: organizing an AFC/NFC Championship Sunday Party (raised about $10,000 per year), renovating the softball field, cleaning the school from top to bottom before Catholic Schools’ Week, and supporting various activities where additional manpower was needed.
We focused on doing things rather than spending a lot of time in meetings. In fact, while we had a monthly meeting, we always had more guys at the events than at the meetings. We kept the politics and bureaucracy low (we all get enough of that in our work lives), and we focused on getting things done while having fun at the same time.
So why are you getting this letter? I am hoping to start a Father’s Club at St. Mary’s School here in Temple. It will cost you nothing to join, and the benefits include getting to do some good things for the school and the kids while getting to know some of the Dads a little better. I still have some great friends that I made through the Father’s Club in Illinois.
If you would like to learn more, please come to the cafeteria at the school at 7:30 AM on Saturday, October 22^nd , to learn more (I know it’s early, but we all have other stuff to do with our families on the weekends, so this usually works the best). If you cannot make the meeting, but you are interested in participating (or if you just have more questions), please e-mail me at mhallee@swmail.sw.org.
Thank you!
Marc Hallee