Carmel Catholic Welcomes Harmony, Hope and Healing Choir To Kick-Off Catholic Schools Week
Mundelein, IL— 1/24/2012—In conjunction with Catholic Schools Week, January 29 through February 3, 2012, Carmel Catholic High School will welcome the Harmony, Hope & Healing (HHH) Choir to kick-off the week. This special group will perform with the school’s liturgical choir during an all-school liturgy on Monday, January 30 at 9:30 a.m. The all-school liturgy will celebrate the mission of the Carmel Catholic community.
The Harmony, Hope & Healing Choir is a creative and therapeutic music program offering dignity and spiritual healing to people transitioning from homelessness, victims of domestic violence, addiction and other forms of poverty throughout the Chicago area. Founded in 2000, and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2003, HHH collaborates with social service agencies and community-based organizations in Englewood, New City, Woodlawn and the West Loop. Their mission statement is simply “HHH delivers direct services in the form of therapeutic music programs that offer healing from the devastating effects of poverty, homelessness, domestic abuse, substance abuse and the isolation of aging.”
“The Harmony Hope & Healing organization is truly inspirational in its mission to feed and heal the spirits and souls of people who are marginalized. Other than being a great honor to hear the HHH choir, this is an amazing teachable moment for our students,” said Kammie Cappelle, Campus Ministry.
Carmel Catholic’s Catholic Schools Week will celebrate with a number of other activities that focus on appreciation for one another. Starting on Monday, January 30 and continuing throughout the week, students nominated by faculty will be recognized with the Most Valuable Corsair (MVC) Award for their outstanding contributions to the Carmel community. On Tuesday, freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will be on retreat with the senior class assisting the retreatants. Each retreat will call the students to examine the essential human values of respect and care, based on the religious conclusion that each of them has great value and is a child of a loving God. The celebration will continue on Thursday when faculty, staff, and parent volunteers will be honored with an Appreciation Luncheon. The week-long celebration will end on Friday with Student Appreciation Day—a day filled with fun and surprises for the students.
The 2012 Catholic Schools Week theme is “Catholic Schools: Faith. Academics. Service.” These three priorities make Catholic schools stand out from other educational institutions. Students are taught faith—not just the basic tenets of Christianity, but how to have a relationship with God. Students are taught academics, which in Catholic schools are held to very high standards, to help each student reach their full potential. Finally, Catholic school students experience service—the giving of one’s time and effort to help others—as an expression of both faith and good citizenship.
“This combined focus on faith, academics, and service prepares our students to lead full and meaningful lives,” explains Lynne Strutzel, Principal. “Our school community is a success because everyone—students, faculty, staff, parents, and volunteers—work together in a spirit of service to each other. As members of this very special community, we understand the God works through us. Catholic Schools Week gives us the opportunity to celebrate what makes Catholic education unique and we have much to celebrate.”
For more than three decades, the nation’s Catholic schools have spent the last week of January recalling the gift that Catholic education provides to America’s young people and its contributions to communities and the nation. Catholic schools are well known for their high level of academic achievement and high graduation rates. At Carmel, 100% of its students graduate and 100% are accepted into college, compared to 44.1% of public school graduates nationally.
Harmony Hope & Healing Background
Harmony Hope & Healing grew from volunteer work initiated by founder, Executive Director, artist and southwest suburban native, Marge Nykaza. In 2000, while completing a Master’s Degree in pastoral studies at Loyola University, Ms. Nykaza launched a music program for homeless women and their children at St. Martin de Porres House of Hope. She learned that integrating music into their daily experiences influenced and advanced their emotional and spiritual healing.
In subsequent years, Ms. Nykaza brought her work to the women and children of the Maria Shelter and to senior citizens at the Vincennes Senior Center, both at the Institute of Women Today (IWT, 2001); to homeless residents at Deborah’s Place (2002-2006); to children and families through the outreach program at the Mantle of Port (2002); and to men recovering from addiction at Cathedral Shelter’s Higgins House (2004). In 2000, Ms. Nykaza also founded the HHH Choir that performs in Chicago and the Midwest and has to date recorded three CDs. Participants from all program sites gain confidence and self-esteem by performing in, and recording with, the choir.
Marge Nykaza Background
Marge Nykaza, M.P.S. is the founder and executive director of Harmony Hope & Healing. As a professional singer, pastoral musician and educator, she shares her gift and love of music with many communities throughout the Chicago area and abroad. A graduate of Eastern Illinois University in music education, Marge extended her vocal studies at De Paul University and completed a Masters Degree in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University in 2000. In September of 2007, she was certified as a Cross-Cultural Music Healing Practitioner from The Open Ear Center in Seattle, WA. Presently, she is pursuing a Doctorate of Sacred Music at Graduate Theological Foundation.
