Mission Statement
The St. Patrick’s School Father’s Guild strives to make a positive difference in the lives of our children as examples of leadership, faith, and excellence as we promote their spiritual growth, academic and social well-being, and vocational preparedness within the St. Patrick’s School Community.
The Father's Guild pledges to continue enhancing our involvement, wherever needed, to further promote a supportive educational community, where each person, regardless of their position, is viewed as important to the proper functioning of the Father's Guild and instrumental in the development of our children. Everyone is respected, every idea valued, and everyone’s labor is appreciated.
General Information
St. Patrick’s School in Huntington, New York is a Catholic Elementary School in the Diocese of Rockville Centre serving the Huntington Community for over 100 years. Our School is committed to the development of the whole child through faith, academics and service from Nursery through 8th Grade in preparation for High School. The Father’s Guild was established to provide a vehicle for Fathers to serve and more actively participate and enhance in their child’s education and school experience by embodying the school’s commitment to faith, academics and service while bonding with their sons and daughters.
Founded in 2024, the Father's Guild is a volunteer-driven, faith-based service organization created to support the mission of St. Patrick’s School and set a positive example for our children through active engagement and encouragement of Fathers in our children’s education. The Father's Guild partners closely with the administration, security, and the PALC to coordinate events, assess support needs, and ensure the success of the various school and extra-curricular activities throughout the school year and beyond. We seek to foster within this school a spirit of excellence, compassion, and mutual respect for our students, families, educators, staff, and the clergy of St. Patrick’s Church and School. We pledge to serve as a resource, wherever possible, to ensure each and every student has the support they need to reap all of the benefits provided by a St. Patrick’s School education and provide an environment that embodies the social teachings of the Church. We believe that fostering presence of positive male role models onto our campus will help demonstrate to the students that faith and service is vital to their education and development.
Active membership is achieved through ongoing enrollment and is open to all Fathers/Grandfathers of current students enrolled at St. Patrick’s School. Father's Guild meetings are held once a month from August through May. The Father's Guild actively encourages all Fathers to become more involved in the lives and educational journeys of their children. Member contributions of time, talent, contacts and resources enable the Father's Guild to fulfill this mission.
Our Core Values are centered on “Spirituality, Activity and Support.” Our values inspire all aspects of lifelong, loving, Father-Daughter/Father-Son relationships through faith, hope, leadership, service, charity and fun.
Our purpose is to serve the St. Patrick’s School Community by helping Fathers and their children to develop positive, engaging, lifelong relationships in the construct of their service to God and their community throughout their education.
Our mission is to create a vibrant, compelling, and enduring service organization, that creates and nurtures lifelong relationships that benefit the greater St. Patrick's School Community.
We Serve the Children, the St. Patrick's School Community, Administration and the Parish through the following initiatives: Father’s Guild Meetings, PALC Events, St. Patrick's School Volunteer Service Events, St. Patrick’s School Community Service Projects, Networking and Father's Guild Sponsored Events.
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FAQ
The St. Patrick's School Father’s Guild is a vibrant and compelling service organization committed to developing positive, engaging support to our children through dedicated service to building our School Community.
Every Father/Grandfather of current students enrolled at St. Patrick’s School can be a member of the Father’s Guild and is welcome to attend meetings and participate in all activities. Membership is also open to Alumni Fathers interested in supporting the Father's Guild’s mission with Executive Board and Pastor approval.
We would like to invite all Fathers to be part of the Father’s Guild and ask that you complete a Registration Form so that we may include you in our database and add you to our electronic distribution list. You may register at a meeting or complete the form available on the website
Membership dues are important to support the ongoing initiatives of the Father's Guild. As the Father's Guild is intended to be a social club, in addition to our services duties, we intend to host events for the Fathers to get to know each other throughout the year, starting with a Kick-Off Event in September. Dues will be used to provide food at certain events and key meetings for participating Fathers. Some events and activities with the children may also be sponsored by the Father's Guild, which will be subsidized to the extent budget allows. Finally, a Father’s Guild shirt and ID card will be provided to all members.
Members will discuss all upcoming and proposed events with a request for funding. The decision to fund an event will be made by the Board and approved by Msgr. Camp.
As we are just kicking this off for the 2024-2025 School Year without a fully defined schedule of events, an unknown number of members, nor a strong indicator of the level of commitment required, the intent is to estimate a reasonable fee for the first year. As we build out the membership, the board and leadership team, and identify events to support and/or sponsor, we will have a better idea on what a true annual operating budget will look like.
Dues for the Inaugural 2024-2025 School Year will be $125 per Father/Grandfather, regardless of how many children attend St. Patrick's, except for those whose youngest child will be in 7th or 8th grade for this upcoming school year. They will only be asked to contribute $65.
These are not annual dues – the $125 is expected to be a “Lifetime” fee per Father for the remainder of the tenure of your children attending St. Patrick's School.
Note, however, that as we operationalize the Father's Guild next year, there may be some adjustments made to ongoing costs and future dues increases. To be fully transparent, this will be presented to members at a meeting and voted on by the Board and approved by Msgr. Camp.
Dues are collected as members join and/or are due at the beginning of the school year prior to the first event.
*Anyone is invited to contribute more than the minimum amount to support the Father's Guild.
**No pro-rata calculations will be made during the year nor will refunds be provided for those leaving the school before 8th grade graduation.
Members will receive a Father’s Guild shirt which should be worn at all events. Additionally, members will receive an ID badge allowing them to get into the school.
Yes, St. Patrick's School follows the Diocesan Policy for the protection of children and young people. CYO Coaches, Religious Education Catechists, Boy/Girl Scout Leaders, all Parish/School Volunteers, and all St. Patrick’s School Parents are required to attend a VIRTUS training class.
The Diocese of Rockville Centre requires all Clergy, Employees, and Volunteers to participate in the Safe Environment Guidelines as established by the Charter for the Protection of Children/Young People (2002) and outlined in the Diocesan Child Protection Policy.
Instructions to Complete the Safe Environment Requirements: Log into: www.Virtus.org
The Father’s Guild meets for monthly meetings on the third Tuesday or Thursday of each month. These meetings provide significant value by providing an opportunity to meet and get to know other Fathers. In addition, we will always have a guest speaker from the St. Patrick's School Leadership Team speak at our meetings on topics regarding our children. Father’s Guild Meetings are normally held in Murray Hall and run from 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm.
The job of the Father's Guild at most events is to act as an ambassador for parents and children to come for help to ensure the safety and security of our students. We do not act as security but will help to address and diffuse a situation and to contact security and/or the administration as and when required in the most expeditious way possible. Protocols have been established and are available to all members for how to handle different types of situations.
Absolutely this is a possibility. Any ideas or suggestions should be brought to the table at anytime. There should be ample opportunity to build broader community service through the Father's Guild which could allow for service hours for volunteer service hours for our students and an opportunity for Fathers to share in this together. This is something we could look into in the future as membership becomes more established.
