Students, staff, family, friends and alumni gathered May 24 at St. John Church in Foley to honor three women who have formed and shaped young minds and hearts for a combined total of more than 100 years in the hallowed halls of St. John’s Area School: Christine Friederichs, principal; Sandy Anderson, second grade teacher; and Kathy Ross, paraprofessional, liturgist and office aide.
Anderson, who has worked at the school for over 45 years, said what led to her career in education stemmed from her own experience as a young student.
“I found out as an adult that I am dyslexic,” Anderson said. “This made school difficult for me. I had some very dedicated teachers who spent extra time with me and a mom who never gave up on me. They believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. They always encouraged me and helped present material in a way I could grasp it. Mrs. Halverson was so influential. She worked with me from first grade until I was in fourth grade. I wanted to be that kind, caring teacher. I knew what it was like to find school hard, and I wanted to help others the way I was helped.”
Following Mass which honored the three retirees, guests were invited to an open house at the school throughout the day. SJAS alumna Anna Stuckmayer, a junior at the College of Saint Benedict, attended with her mother, Carol, who also worked at the school for a number of years.
“When we were at Mass, I was thinking about my kindergarten teacher and that she and Mrs. Anderson are probably the biggest influences in why I went into education,” Anna Stuckmayer said. “I love coming back here and seeing Mrs. Anderson and all the staff who were such a big part of my childhood.”
Also retiring this year is Kathy Ross, who served SJAS for 15 years, starting as a volunteer and then moving to do all kinds of jobs from tutoring to serving in the lunchroom to providing music at school liturgies.
“When Kathy knew she was retiring, she wanted to spend as much time with the kids as she could,” said SJAS lunch director Denise Stawarski. “She does so much for the school and she always greets each child by name. If you knew her, you’d want to be her friend. We will really miss her.”
Both Anderson and Ross served alongside SJAS principal Christine Friederichs for the past nine years, who, after 42 years in education in the St. Cloud Diocese, also is retiring.
Friederichs credits her educational roots to the Benedictine sisters who taught her at St. Mary’s School in Melrose.
“They were so loving, kind, and patient,” she said. “Their gentleness and love for God inspired me to pursue a teaching education in the Catholic schools.”
All three women have left a lasting impact on the families they served.
“Our community has been blessed to have such faithful examples to share the love of Christ with our students,” said Father Michael Wolfbauer, pastor of the Foley Area Catholic Community. “The impact of their service will be felt for many years. We give thanks to God for the ways they shared their gifts with our school community. I know they will continue to bring blessings to the Church as they walk forward in their own journeys of faith.”
More about Sandy
Q. What have been the highlights?
A. I think the biggest highlight has been working with so many wonderful students and families. I have taught parents and then their children. I have taught two of my four children and nine of my 11 grandchildren. The staff has always been awesome and I am still friends with most of them, even if we haven’t worked together for 40-plus years. The school has been a wonderful place to grow in faith and know that those you work with share your beliefs. Each year when the second graders made reconciliation and Eucharist, my own faith was renewed. To see their strong faith and love of God was truly inspiring!
Q. What challenged you over the years?
A. That would be technology! When I started, we had mimeograph machines and we threaded movies through a projector. Typewriters were for the secretary. Now we have computers and i-Pads and Apple TV. We teach entire lessons online or supplement online material to enhance our lessons. When Covid hit and we had to teach online, it was very challenging especially with first graders. I thank God for the wonderful teachers who helped me learn and navigate this new learning environment.
Q. What is one thing you hope you accomplished?
A. I hope I instilled a love for God and a love of learning in my students. I hope when they think of me, they smile because I do when I think of them.
More about Kathy
Q. What inspired you to begin your career in education?
A. The atmosphere at SJAS was so wonderful when my youngest kids started preschool there. I volunteered in the building first, and when the musician for the kids’ Masses retired, I knew it was a position I could take over. I’ve been playing and singing for all the liturgies, along with helping in other areas ever since. It’s been a very rewarding career, I can honestly say.
Q. What has challenged you over the years?
A. To be truthful, I haven’t really struggled or felt challenged all that much.
I was in a place where I felt valued and needed, working with staff and students whom I held dear to my heart, and was doing the work of God in a way that fit quite well in a Catholic elementary school. I’ve been quite blessed over the years.
Q. What has been a highlight?
A. Highlights include teaching the students to sing many different rounds over the years, playing different instruments during Mass and watching so many heads turn in unison to see what instrument is accompanying us for that song, hearing 4-year-olds say “hello” to me using my name in their tiny, tiny voices. Working in the lunch line, seeing the entire school within an hour and calling each of them by their name as they came through the line.
A. What is one thing you hope you accomplished during your career and ministry?
A. I’d love it if the kids whose education at SJAS happened during my tenure will have a fond memory of me. I have so many memories of them over the past 15 years. It would be lovely to be part of their memories from SJAS, too.
More about Christine
Q. What has been a highlight?
A. I have several, but one of the best is when you are teaching a classroom of students, all eyes are on you, they are hanging on every word you are saying, and you can see by the light in their eyes and the smiles on their faces — they get it! It’s the best! Another great personal moment was graduating with my master’s degree in leadership from Notre Dame at age 60!
Q. What has challenged you over the years?
A. There have been many challenges over the years — children, behaviors, parents, colleagues, educational trends, technology, to name a few. The two biggest challenges were going back to school to get my master’s degree at age 57 and keeping our school open during the pandemic.
Q. What is one thing you hope you accomplished during your career and ministry?
A. I hope I have passed on my love of Catholic education to those I have had the privilege of teaching, mentoring and administrating throughout my career and ministry. I hope I was able to pay it forward, repaying the love, kindness and patience from the Benedictine sisters by passing on my Catholic faith and teaching to the many children I have encountered over the years.