One of the new additions to the line up of activities was bird house construction Session 6 at Camp Howard. The bird houses were pre-cut out of 3/4″ pine in a traditional slant box pattern with bevels at the camp. Campers assembled the houses with screws and glue then painted them in the color scheme of the original cabins at Camp Howard. The Fircrest Unit of cabins was the original unit with 6 cabins. The board and bat buildings are painted in a rust red paint with burnt orange trim. All of the original buildings at the camp are painted in that color scheme.
Tag Oregon
Meanwhile…Back at the Convent…What’s all that Construction on Campus You Ask?
Exciting times on the campus of the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon! Who can get excited about a renovated parking lot? When it adds several extra spots and addresses the underground water collection etc. it is pretty exciting huh? The entrance to the back of the campus is also being changed as Murray Blvd. makes changes.
The old gym was taken down this spring to make way for a much needed campus maintenance facility and space for the maintenance Dept. to call home. Personally I am very excited about this and look forward to the facility being finished! It will greatly enhance the campus with the capabilities of really being able to take care of maintenance needs very professionally!
And the Sisters, are doing something fun for the community, putting in a bocce court and patio for outdoor activities. We will be enjoying the bocce court this next week during community days so I will be sure to share that soon. Meanwhile, here are some photos from this past week.
4th Grade Girls Fighting Dutch or All Saints?
HIGHLIGHTS
The first points of the game were scored, with 45 seconds remaining, in first quarter, by All Saints. All Saints had 13 kids on the team ( a lot for a bxb team) and they did a great job with getting all of the girls playing time. Both teams played with a significant range of height on the teams.
All Saints led 2-0 at the end of the first quarter and at half time it was the Fighting Dutch 5 – 4. By the end of the third quarter All Saints had reclaimed the lead and the Final score at the end of 4 was…..All Saints 19 – 11! (Fighting Dutch are from Visitation in Verboort and St. Francis of Assisi in Roy, CYO’s rural Catholic School teams). Great job to All Saints and the Fighting Dutch!
Update on Cabin Hit by Tree…
Winter Camp meetings have begun. The leadership team for the summer program reviews notes taken at the weekly meetings during camp
in effort to make improvements. At the conclusion of the meetings which lasted about 4 hours, we toured the camp to check on the progress
of the All Saints Cabin which had been knocked off its foundation by a tree. Then we checked out the renovations inside of Champions Hall.
Special thanks to Candi, Leila and Karen for the great job they are doing making Camp “look great!”

Picking indoor colors for inside of Champions Hall. New wainscoting will be added after the painting is finished.
CYO All Star Swim Meet to Cap the 2015 CYO Swim Season
Mark Lee, CYO Director of Swimming, will be working with his outstanding volunteers in the swim program to present the final swim event of the 2014-15 swim season. The All Star Meet is unique in that it gives swimmers the opportunity to swim by gender and grade as opposed to cub (3rd through 5th grade) or cadet (6th through 8th).
The event will take place at the Mt. Hood College pool on Saturday January 31 from 1:00 until 5:30. This year, for the first time, All Star Swim Tee Shirts will be available for purchase by participants.

CYO Football Season Concludes with Three new Championship Teams
The 2013 CYO Football season concluded November 10 at Kiggins Bowl in Vancouver, WA with three championship games, one each for third and fourth, fifth and sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

Third and Fourth grade Championship Region 4 Falcons from Clackamas County – Christ the King, St. John the Baptist & St. John the Apostle Schools.

Fifth and Sixth Grade Champions from Region 6 Beaverton Knights from Valley Catholic, St. Cecilia, St. Pius X, Holy Trinity
High School Basketball Program Ready for Registration
Jenna Bass, CYO Director of Basketball and Volleyball is getting ready to schedule high school basketball teams. The CYO High School basketball program is a wonderful way for high school youth to stay involved in CYO sports and have a LOT of fun doing it too! Most of the games will be played at the HOOP facility.
The High School program plays on Sunday afternoon and some 500 to 600 players generally turn out for the program. If you are interested in putting a high school team together, contact Jenna Bass at the CYO Office at 503-231-9484. Packets will be available at most of the area Catholic High Schools next week. You do NOT have to attend a Catholic High School to participate. Put your own team together, the registration includes reversible jersey, officials fees and facility rental. CYO will schedule your team into the proper grade. Teams are put together by grade and gender. Girls play in one league but boys have a league for frosh, soph, jr and senior.
Camp Howard…Plenty of Space…But Guess What?
Camp Howard is a great place for youth to spend time at in the summer. The camp offers rental opportunities year around and a seven week camping season in the heart of the summer.
After adding an addition 100 bed occupancy to the camp in 2001, there is always plenty of room for campers to attend the camp EXCEPT ONE WEEK.
The last week of camp is an interesting week. Counselors are heading back to college, camper numbers are much lower, so we schedule Joe Bushman’s football camp down at the sport camp. He and his team take over Cougar Den Unit and Greenwood Unit. Joe and his team have been coming to camp for several years and they are a great group of guys and gals.
This lowers the number of campers we can take the last week of camp during a session that is normally low anyway. But believe it or not, this particular session has filled for week long campers. So check out the other 5 weeks and find the week that will work best for your schedule and get registered for what promises to be a great summer of camping at Camp Howard.
John Canzano’s Articles on CYO Track 1 and 2 – Must read if you missed!
In case you missed either of John Canzano’s articles in the Oregonian about the CYO Track Star from St. Thomas More, this is a must read!
First Article April 22, 2012
Follow Up Article April 29, 2012
Museum Exhibit Was Fantastic
Saturday morning we loaded the bus and headed to the California Museum in Sacramento to visit the Women & Spirit Exhibit about the History of Religious Women in America. It was very inspirational and something that made us feel really good about the women who helped shape the country. It was really very moving. I did take some clips of the exhibit which was allowed so after some editing will share the clips I took.
One interesting tidbit I discovered was about the Mayo Clinic. It was started by the Sisters and they asked Dr. Mayo if he would work at the hospital if they built it and provided the support! He said he would and the rest is history!
Because this was the traveling exhibit, it was the featured exhibit and quite large. After spending about three hours in this section, I could not believe that much time had passed, I then went around to the other exhibits which I described yesterday. I was especially interested in finding “Ishi” the last wild Indian in America. It was very interesting and I enjoyed reading the material about it.
We spent the entire morning at the museum and by 1:00 had pretty much seen everything so people broke up into small groups and headed for all points in Sacramento. My group headed for Old Sacramento which we really enjoyed especially the old hardware store. Lots of great things to see in this town loaded with history. After lunch we went to the Train Museum. Wow…what a place two stories of locomotives…full size…took you through the ages in trains. Also included a large wing on toy trains. Incredible building and the content was fantastic – Highly recommend to all train lovers!
Wonderful shops to visit all around Old Sacramento and as 5:00 approached we made our way to the Cathedral for Mass. The Cathedral was recently renovated and as we learned yesterday, the architect and overseer of the renovation was done by the uncle of our friend, Colleen Nistler, known by many of you. Her uncle did a GREAT job. It is beautiful! Pics to come later.
After Mass, ten of us headed over to the Pyramid restaurant across from the Cathedral and we had a wonderful dinner outdoors where we could enjoy the facade of the Cathedral and people walking . It was a great evening! After dinner we headed for our hotel and I have to tell you…I was tired! I did not even get into the pool! Just went to sleep!
I can assure you that we all had a great day yesterday. It was a remarkable event for us and one that I am glad to have taken part in. Today we head back to Portland on our “Noahs Ark.” It will be a lot of fun as this group of 44 has really had a wonderful time building community and enjoying the entire trip.
See you soon!


















