Cardinal Newman High School rallies for its students, families affected by Santa Rosa fire
On a recent Wednesday in the St. Elizabeth Seton gym in Rohnert Park, the majority of Cardinal Newman High School’s junior class sat in groups of five and six around tables. Theology instructors Ryan Corriveau and Alice Meyer had combined six periods of classes into one, and all of those students were awaiting their assignment.
The hall is so vast Meyer used a microphone to be heard.
The assignment was simple. From a list of 30 virtues such as patience and faith, each table was assigned a different word at random. Students were to write about what that virtue meant to them, where they have seen it practiced in their lives and who they know that exemplifies it.
At a back table, where Marcus Vidaurri and Brad Slender, were sitting next to each other, the word “resilience” was written in colored marker.
It was an apt choice for Vidaurri and Slender, who are among the 95 Cardinal Newman families who lost homes in the wildfires that took 23 lives in Sonoma County last month and destroyed 5,130 homes. In all, 110 students - about a sixth of the Newman campus - and three staff members lost homes in the fires, according to Principal Graham Rutherford.
Loss for the Cardinal Newman community extended to the Catholic Church-affiliated Ursuline Road campus, which suffered heavy damage: 19 classrooms, the main office, the counseling office, the library and the baseball and soccer fields were destroyed. Twelve of Newman’s 620 students have since enrolled elsewhere.
Rutherford, a Cardinal Newman graduate, had built a veritable museum of personal and professional school memorabilia in his office. It, too, is gone.
The gymnasium, the wrestling room and the football field went untouched but surrounding devastation is so severe that no student will be allowed back on the campus until at least January. For now, classes are scattered at four sites across the county, including Rohnert Park. Athletic events are held on the road.
Just about every virtue Corriveau and Meyer put up on the worksheet that day - including courage, integrity and gratitude - have been tested in recent weeks.
“Out of this I think I have learned to definitely just be thankful for everything that I have,” said Slender, 16. “It really just makes me appreciate everything I was blessed to have: my family, my school, my home.”
Seeking a new normal
This is not how Maiya Flores, 17, thought her senior year would play out. One of the most decorated athletes to play for the new but incredibly successful Cardinal Newman girls’ basketball program, the four-year starter is coming off a season which saw the Cardinals go 30-4 and play in the open division of the California State Championship for the first time in school history.
The previous year, when Flores was a sophomore, the squad claimed a state title. But after the fires displaced her from her home, her school and her home court last month, Flores is trying to find a new normal. Basketball helps.
“When I play, I totally ignore the facts of what happened,” she said.
When she left her home in the early morning of Oct. 9, she grabbed few belongings. Her state tournament medals, her section champion medals, they came with her.
When practice for her upcoming season started Nov. 6, Flores was in all new gear. Everything she had before was gone.
“I want to keep playing because I have nowhere else to go,” Flores said.
Flores has the calm of a shooter. Even now. Her coach, Monica Mertle, said it’s been remarkable to watch her rebound from the disaster.
“Maiya has been fantastic,” she said. “She has been a great teammate, engaged. You can’t ask for a better response.”
“I’m not the person to have a pity party,” Flores said. “It happened. It’s time to move on.”
Basketball has been there to help her do so.
“I literally lost everything. This is the one thing that I know will bring joy to the entire family.”
Student body separated
The school’s seniors are taking their classes at St. Joseph’s in Cotati, where classrooms have been set up in partitioned areas of the parish recreation room. Students are checked in at the door, and school announcements and the morning prayer are given as students crowd onto one side of the room, some sitting on desks, some three deep by the front door.
Pennants commemorating the 2017 North Bay League champion football and girls tennis teams are pinned to the south wall.
The junior class is 3 miles north at St. Elizabeth Seton, the sophomores are at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Windsor, and the freshmen are at Resurrection Church in Santa Rosa.
Rutherford acknowledged that separating the student body by class was not ideal, but it was the only way to get students back in class and back together.
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