Our 47 Catholic schools and early childhood centers serve over 13,000 students and their families in Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties. Dedicated to nurturing and ensuring each can grow spiritually, academically and socially, each works diligently throughout the year to meet those goals. 

The 2024-2025 school year is coming to a close in the next couple of weeks. As testing and exams come to a close and the final parent-teacher conferences are in the books, our schools are now celebrating and kick-offing summer break with community-wide events.

Summer Bash - St. Lawrence Catholic School, Tampa 

As a Catholic school, St. Lawrence Catholic School in Tampa believes in nurturing the whole child mind, body, and spirit. Every year, they host an end-of-year event called ‘Summer Bash’ to celebrate students’ academic achievements and allow families to enjoy a fun, meaningful time together. 

The event is organized by the school’s Parents Club and parent volunteers in partnership with school leadership working together in a spirit of service to create opportunities that strengthen the school community. 

“Events like this help us strengthen the bonds of fellowship among our families, living out our faith in joyful community, said Jeremy Guerra, president of the Parents' Club. “This is a wonderful setting for families to connect with one another, meet new faces from our school community, and build the kind of fellowship that strengthens us not just as a school, but as a faith-filled family.”

For the past four years, “Summer Bash” was held on school grounds with bounce houses, games, and outdoor fun. This year, the Parents' Club board explored a new idea, something more fun and family-oriented – a bowling party. 
Instead of an outdoor event with the Florida sun beating down, planners decided to bring the celebration indoors and make it more comfortable for everyone.

“We’ve were blessed to reserve 36 lanes, which allowed us to welcome a large number of families and ensure there’s plenty of space for everyone to enjoy the evening together,” shared Guerra. “We chose a bowling alley because it’s a fun, family-friendly activity that’s welcoming to all ages.”
With over 200 parents and students RSVPing to attend, their decision was definitely supported by the entire school community.

Fun in the Sun - Cathedral School of St. Jude, St. Petersburg 

The Cathedral School of St. Jude in St. Petersburg has been on a mission since 2020 to build back a strong sense of community that has always been one of the pillars of the school’s great history. One way they have accomplished this is by creating a year-end school-wide event that spans three days, out on the school field. 

“Fun in the Sun” is held annually in May, from Thursday through Saturday. This year’s celebration took place May 8 through 10, and featured multiple water slides, bounce houses, food trucks, family lawn games, and corn hole. This year, it also included grade-level competitions for ultimate bragging rights.
While the event is free to all students and families, it is fully sponsored by the St. Jude community. Almost $10,000 in donations support every aspect from the water slides, to bottled waters and burgers, down to the on-site porta-potties and hand washing stations. 
In addition, countless moms, dads, grandparents, siblings, and distant cousins volunteer to set up, clean up, and keep everyone safe and hydrated over the three-day event.  

“This event has lovingly become our “not a festival, festival” and we truly hope it only grows bigger and wetter with every year that passes,” shared Adrianna Ward, President, Parent Community Association. “St. Jude’s has a wonderful community built on over 70 years of students, parents, and grandparents who’ve walked these halls, and what we have seen come from this event is exactly what we hoped all along. No matter what each school year brings, our families and our community cannot be outmatched in generosity and willingness to show up for each other and our school. Happy summer, St. Jude’s!”

Congratulations to students at all of our Catholic schools who are finishing the year off strong!