Bishop Frank J. Dewane holds mass at St. John Neumann High School at the end of Catholic Schools week, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008. Submitted

NAPLES — The St. John Neumann’s Celtics basketball team wasn’t tearing up the court with lay-ups, but everyone in the gym caught the positive vibration of Friday morning’s event.

Bishop Frank J. Dewane came to the gym to celebrate with a Mass the faith, tradition and the doctrines Catholic education instills in its students. The Mass culminated a week-long, Catholic Schools Week 2009 observed nationally and throughout Dewane’s seven-county Diocese of Venice.

“We are a dynamic school system,” Dewane said. “During this week the younger and older, the students and teachers, everyone, can recognize we are part of a larger system. We become more of ourselves by belonging to our spiritual community.”

The community turned out more than 350 strong to celebrate the Mass and connect with each other. St. John Neumann High School students, wearing green polo shirts tucked in khaki pants or skirts, mixed with middle-school students. Depending on the middle school their shirts were either red polo or white oxford with black ties under dark sport coats.

Ask a student about the plaid pattern and the answer would always be blue despite the red or green woven through the pattern.

To the uninitiated it was difficult to tell which student was from which attending school-- St. Elizabeth Seton School or St. Ann School or perhaps Royal Palm Academy.

“It is just plaid,” said Andrew Nichols, 16, a senior at St. John Neumann High School. “This is the seventh time I’ve gone through a Catholic Schools Week. It gives us a chance to unite with different grades and talk to teachers more informally. This school is my family.”

Nichols plans to leave his high-school family next fall. Columbia University accepted him. He plans to major in bio-chemistry and be part of the community there too.

“I already have an unpaid internship,” Nichols said. “It involves smoking reduction for young people.”

The timing of the event seemed to coincide with what could be called a slump in the school year’s middle, said Tony Grasso, St. John Neumann chemistry teacher and sports coach.

“This gets students energized again,” Grasso said. “It infuses students with the excitement of school again after the (Christmas) break. It reminds them that they are in service for each other and others.”

Retired without relatives in any of the schools, Naples resident Peter Barry, 81, attended Mass because he is a firm believer in Catholic education.

“I am a product of Catholic education,” Barry, a retired businessman said. “I graduated from Fordham Prep in New York and Manhattan College a (Christian) Brothers’ school. Catholic schools give an education rooted in firm values. And I came because the bishop is here.”

Many of the week’s value-packed activities emphasized the theme of the event: “Catholic Schools Celebrate Service.”

The service celebrated included students giving back to the community at large. But one group seemed to get special attention from St. John Neumann students — teachers.

The students didn’t put their teachers through pie-in-the-face slapstick — they took them out to dinner. Students hosted their teachers at Bice Ristorante as part of faculty appreciation day Wednesday.

“We all came together this week in celebration of our whole community and its dedication to Catholic education,” said Denny Denison, St. John Neumann principal. “It brings together our identity as a whole and makes us a tighter community.”

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