Immaculate Conception School has a small, but outstanding eighth-grade class.

Owen Merz, Emerson Schroeder and Carl Smith are the only eighth-grade students in the Montgomery City Catholic school. They have been attending IC since kindergarten.

“Those three have been together forever, so they’re kind of a little family,” IC Principal Dana Schroeder said. “They really enjoy their school. They love their school. It’s kind of like their second home.”

The trio celebrated Catholic Schools Week for the final time at IC from Jan. 29-Feb. 4. They did numerous activities such as ice skating at the Wentzville Ice Arena, eating pizza, watching movies and visiting with the Montgomery County Fire Protection District.

“I like going on the trips,” said Emerson Schroeder, who is the principal’s daughter.

Catholic Schools Week was celebrated at Catholic schools throughout the country, including IC. It starts on the last Sunday in January.

“It’s a big deal within all Catholic schools,” Dana Schroeder said. “It’s important to celebrate what our parish is and what our community does as well as our families and our students and staff do to make our Catholic schools run, especially within the Jefferson City Diocese. It takes a village to make a school run. We rely heavily on the parish to help fund our school and we want to show appreciation of them and how much we love our Catholic schools.”

In the past, the IC students did other activities such as bowling, roller skating and watching a band play music.

“My favorite time in Catholic Schools Week was whenever we went to that roller skating rink,” Merz said.

Smith said he enjoyed visiting with the fire department on the school’s playground on Feb. 1 despite the freezing conditions. He and the other students learned what it takes to work as a fireman.

“I thought the demonstration was pretty cool,” Smith said.

Seventh-grader Miley Boulware said she was happy that the fire department came to her school because she has been dreaming of working as a fire person since she was 5 years old.

“I want to save peoples’ lives,” Boulware said.

Students played patriotic bingo to celebrate the United States on Jan. 31. They also made rosaries and enjoyed activities such as the sled pull, hook and ring and barrel races at the school’s playground on Feb. 2.

“It’s been an amazing week,” Dana Schroeder said. “The committee did a great job putting together a great week for our students, staff and parish. It’s been a lot of fun, religious and educational stuff going on here.”

The students went ice skating in the morning on Feb. 3 after they went to mass. When they returned from Wentzville, the students enjoyed pizza and watched a couple of movies.

“They loved ice skating,” Dana Schroeder said. “We went two years ago. It was our second time there. They really enjoyed it a lot.”

Seventh-grader Kendra Rakers said after spending a whole week doing all of the activities, she got to learn one important thing.
“I get to learn about God,” Rakers said.