AREA LUTHERAN SCHOOLS `CELEBRATING GOD'S LOVE'

The students at Trinity Lutheran School in Cape Girardeau and St. Paul Lutheran School in Jackson will be "Celebrating God's Love" during National Lutheran Schools Week.

More than 3,000 Lutheran schools across the country will observe the week, which begins today and continues through Saturday, by embracing the theme "Celebrating God's Love."

Students are excited about the upcoming week. "There is always an anticipation of the week," said Marilyn Lowes, who is St. Paul's secretary and helped coordinate the week. "The students are always looking forward to the different activities."

Both schools have a multitude of events planned for the week, one of which is a joint chapel service alternating between the schools. This year the service will be held at Trinity Lutheran Church at 8:30 a.m.

"The service is an annual event held between the two schools," said Robert Hartmann, principal of Trinity Lutheran School. "It gives the students a chance to get together in a big group and worship. Usually the only other time students get together is on the basketball court."

At the Trinity Lutheran School in Cape Girardeau, students will have lunch with their parents, grandparents and special friends on different days of the week.

The students also will be able to express themselves during a variety of dress-up days.

A learning festival, science fair and other activities will be held during the week. "The students have been working on different science and social studies projects," Hartmann said.

"They are very excited about the upcoming activities. We try to vary the activities from year to year, and some of the activities are very successful."

The students at St. Paul Lutheran School in Jackson will pick secret pals for the week. The pals will trade stickers, suckers and candy bars throughout the week. Secret pals are a tradition at St. Paul along with the joint chapel service.

St. Paul also will hold Dress-up Day, School Color Day and Burger King Night.

During Burger King Night, teachers from St. Paul will work as helpers at the Burger King in Jackson, Lowes said. The teachers will be working from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Lowes said the school will receive 20 percent of the total receipts during this time.

Students at both schools will not attend classes Friday due to a teachers' in-service day.