As the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon begin their year-long 125th Jubilee celebration, the Catholic Sentinel honors the SSMOs with 10 pages of news coverage, photos and sidebars in their Feb. 17 issue. Be sure to share these stories with your friends. Spread them far and wide!

Here’s a sampling of what’s inside:

• New building at Valley Catholic a gem of sustainability
• Many places, many years
• SSMO ministry goes here and beyond
• Two Sisters seven decades apart reflect on their shared community experience
• An extraordinary instructor of the faith: Sister Mary Imelda Vandehey
• Sisters, restaurants and city of Beaverton team up to fight hunger
• Timeline: 125 years for the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon
• These Valiant Women Abide

Alumna Caitlin Krutsinger ’04 has been volunteering with the Peace Corps in Mozambique, Africa. To learn more about her work on a small poultry project benefitting orphans and HIV+ community members, watch this short video.

The 59th Annual Oregon Sports Awards took place Sunday, January 30, 2011 at the Tiger Woods Center at the Nike World Headquarters. Two-time Olympic gold medal saber fencer Mariel Zagunis ’03 earned the Harry Glickman Professional Female Athlete of the Year award. In 2009 Mariel won the same honor, and in 2004 and 2008 she was recognized at the event with the Bill Hayward Amateur Athletes Award.

The Oregon Sports Awards honor the state’s top athletes, coaches, teams and more for their performances in 2010.

Read more HERE.

Katherine, a Valley Catholic School alumna, graduated in 2006. She returned to Valley Catholic Elementary School with 4th grade teacher Carol Pausz for the month of September 2010 as a part of the “September Experience” program. September Experience gives education majors at Oregon State University a first-hand experience setting up a classroom and curriculum for a new academic year.

Katherine and four of her siblings all attended high school at VCS: Krista ’95, Brendan ’97, Erin ’00 and Brian ’03. Her younger sister, Sarah, is currently a sixth grader at Valley Catholic School and their father, Paul Gram, serves on the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon Foundation Board. Read the rest of this entry »

Valley Catholic 2003 grad and two-time Olympic gold medalist Mariel Zagunis is a fencing world champion yet again. She defeated Olga Kharlan of Ukraine 15-11 in the finals in Paris Nov. 6.

Read the full Beaverton Valley Times article here.

For four years, Valley Catholic alumna KT Wilson has been a part of a nearly 80-year tradition. The 2007 graduate earned her place with the prestigious dance company, the Radio City Rockettes. This holiday season KT hopes to be a part of the group performing in Portland at the Rose Garden arena, in the Dec. 23 to 26 Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

Read the entire story in The Portland Tribune.

KT is pictured (left) with Trail Blazer Jeff Pendergraph and Rockette Kate Vallee. 

Photo courtesy of The Portland Tribune.

Rana Kassab ’03 was selected 4th runner up in the 2011 Miss Oregon USA Pageant. The pageant took place in Bend at the River House Convention Center the weekend of October 2 & 3. Read more here.

Winners from state competitions will compete in spring 2011 for the title, Miss USA. Miss USA will then represent the United States in the Miss Universe 2011 competition. The Miss Universe and Miss USA Pageants are a Donald J. Trump and NBC Universal joint venture.

For the 5th consecutive year, Valley Catholic High School was selected by prominent advocate for Catholic education, Joe Weston, to be a part of his extraordinary Weston Challenge matching gift program. The goal of this year’s Joseph E. Weston Challenge, was to raise $8,500 for financial aid endowment for VC High school students.

Thanks to generous donors within our community, this goal was met and therefore will be matched by Mr. Weston, dollar for dollar. To date, $9,122.68 has been raised and the endowment is up to nearly $55,000 since we were chosen to participate in this annual challenge five years ago.

Thank you to this year’s generous donors and to donors past for helping us meet the Weston Challenge to directly benefit our high school students, now and in the future.

Our own Valley Catholic alum, Charlie Wilson ’04 will star in a local area production of “A Chorus Line.” Perhaps first inspired by his younger sister Katie Wilson’07 and her dancing pursuits, Charlie began a career on the stage and in musical theater while a freshman at Valley Catholic. He performed in VCS productions throughout high school including Aladdin, Honk!, Damn Yankees, Annie and South Pacific. Post graduation, Charlie spent four years touring with The Young Americans, a group that later would bring him right back to our campus! (Read more about The Young Americans visit to Valley Catholic in 2009.)

A colleague of his sister’s, Amy Palamino (whose résumé includes touring with Cats, 42nd Street and Cabaret), invited Charlie to audition for the Broadway Rose Theater Company production of A Chorus Line. Charlie landed the role of Italian Mike Costa, who, like Charlie, begins a dancing career after following his sister to dance school. A Chorus Line runs Aug. 4-22. To learn more about the production and to purchase your tickets, visit Tigard’s Broadway Rose Theater Company. 

The Young Americans were founded almost 50 years ago in Hollywood, Calif. to provide our talented Young American student performers (15-21 years of age) with education in music, dance, performance and teaching, and to use this training, and the good will and optimism of these young people to support music in schools and its inherent benefits through conducting International Music Outreach Workshops in educational facilities of all types throughout the world.