Legacy Christian Academy

Mrs. Jody Shank, a faculty member since 1984, went home to be with the Lord on Saturday, September 5. She was well loved by her students, parents, and staff. She will be missed dearly, but the seeds that she sowed will continue to bear fruit for many years to come.

Jody’s Celebration of Life Service will be held Saturday, September 12th from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm. Due to COVID restrictions, attendance will be by invitation only, however her service will be streamed via Facebook Live from her husband Ken’s Facebook page.

Ken Shank – Facebook

If you would like to pay your respects to or visit with the family, there will be an Open House/Visitation open to the public from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm on Saturday, September 12 at Legacy in the Sports Center.

Celebration of Life Details

10:00 am – 11:00 am Visitation at Meadow Creek Church by invitation only

11:00 am – 12:00 pm Service at Meadow Creek Church by invitation only

Ken Shank – Facebook (Click for Live Stream of 11:00 am service)

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Open House at Legacy Christian Academy – Sports Center Gym (Door 4) Open to all

LCA is the first Pre-K through 12th -grade school in Minnesota to implement this type of extensive medical-grade filtration solution, which includes enhanced ozone-free bipolar ionization installed into the existing HVAC system paired with strategic placement of six ISO-Aire air purification units. The bolstered ionization combined with the recirculating ISO-Aire’s HEPA filtration and ionization ensures that indoor air is continuously cleaned and recirculated 24/7, helping to capture and destroy 99.99% of airborne particulates such as viruses, bacteria, mold, and pollen.

Full press release by ISO-Aire Technology

Channel 5 News Coverage

Legacy students are ALL officially done with the 2019-20 school year! Our traditional end-of -year milestones were celebrated in new and creative ways. Check out the photo galleries below for each of the three graduations we held!

Tuesday, May 12 – PreK Graduation Parade

Caps and gowns were donned inside cars for this non-traditional PreK Graduation. The Anoka County Sheriff was there to celebrate each young grad and send the stream of decorated cars down the road “parade” style to Anoka High School where they met up the Anoka-Champlin Fire Department for more hero air high fives! Congrats Class of 2033!

Friday, May 15 – Senior Send Off (Drive-thru style)

On the day that was planned to be commencement, we couldn’t just let our seniors drive in and drive out. Instead, we invited them to pick up their caps and gowns drive-thru style where we decorated their cars, announced them red carpet style, and had them pause to record last reflections that we will compile for their true graduation ceremony currently planned for July 31. Congrats Class of 2020!

Wednesday, May 20 – 4th Grade Graduation

Fourth graders took to Zoom for a virtual graduation ceremony where they enjoyed their traditional “look back” video along with 4th grade speeches! Then they finished their school day and hopped in the car for a parade of their own! Congrats Class of 2028!

After a spring of Partnering with Parents in a whole new way, we have loved celebrating this amazing Legacy community! Just one final “drive-thru” celebration planned on Friday, May 22 for supply drop off/pick up (1-3pm) and the school year is officially closed. Together we made it through and together we look forward to Fall 2020 when we plan to be back in the classroom! Enjoy your summer, Lions!

Physically distant doesn’t have to mean socially isolated. Legacy’s Community Friday’s kicked off on April 3 with the intention of giving our community opportunities to play together, worship together, connect with each other, and grow together. With these initiatives we are reinventing extracurriculars for this temporary season of social distancing.

Who woke up early on Friday to sweat it out with Coach Dew, Coach Manske, or Coach Nelson?
Who took in a chapel service on YouTube? Between the two videos we posted, there were 679 views!
Who got in the kitchen and tried their hand at cloud eggs thanks to Mr. Nydam and Dr. Lohse’s “How-to Video?” Along with 154 others, Mrs. Vance whipped up some of her own cloud eggs!
Who got serious about Chore Challenges? We heard from the Price family as well as the Olson family!
Who checked off some boxes on the Fitness Bingo sheets? That advanced Bingo card is NOT for the faint of heart! Senior Athletes … show us what you got!

Our goal here is NOT to overwhelm, but to provide creative outlets to engage with others in our community. There is NO expectation to participate, but we hope you find something that makes you want to jump into the ring with us.

To make sure we don’t miss your involvement, use the hashtags #TogetherWeCan and #LCARoars or tag Legacy Christian Academy @Legacy_MN in your posts! You can also email to [email protected]. We’d love to feature you on our pages or in our next mini video!

Community Fridays activities are posted in eNews weekly on Wednesdays and to the dedicated webpage here:

Community Fridays

An annual tradition, here’s what some of our Senior Band/Choir students had to share about this years tour to Michigan.

“Band and Choir tour this year was an experience to remember. Though it was just a shorter trip this year, there were memories that will last a lifetime. It was great getting to perform for another Christian school where we were able to inspire many of the younger kids who are also current fine arts student. The biggest impact of the band and choir tour thought was being able to mentor the younger kids to show them how to lead with integrity and accountability in future years. Being able to watch as us seniors have grown and being able to be part of the process of seeing the underclassmen grow in their faith and in themselves in general is a true blessing that leaves the biggest mark from the seniors.” – Senior Student

“The band tour is for both influencing and impacting others that we visit and for bonding as a band and choir. We traveled up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We performed Thursday for Crooked Lake elementary and Friday for Valley Christian School. Friday night we also got to have a senior night and bond as a group with seniors doing worship and giving advice. On Saturday we got to spend the entire day skiing and bonding together.” – Senior Student

Mrs. Niessen’s 4th grade class has been focusing kindness. Recently, they hosted a Random Acts of Crazy Kindness (RACK) Week! Every day they picked a card with a random act to bless people both inside and outside of their classroom. Here’s how their RACK week racked up!

Monday: Write a Thank you card to a school helper. Philimon and a friend in the classroom who had helped them recently.

Tuesday: Make a card for a friend. A friend in a different grade than 4th and a friend in our class

Wednesday: Ask someone how you can help them today. Mrs. Niessen emailed the staff and asked what we could do for them. The kids helped Mrs, Oberg, Mrs. Bruneau, Mrs. Smitsdorff, Mrs. Henderson, Ms. Buchelt, Mrs. Beyers, Mrs. Christian, Mrs. Kubiszewski, Mrs. Coolbroth, and Mrs. Kubly. They also helped each other clean our their desks.

Thursday: Throw away someone else’s trash in the cafeteria. They helped other kids at lunch. They helped pick up trash when it fell in our classroom.

Friday: Let only kind words come out of your mouth. We tried to curb our responses if someone said or did something we didn’t like both in the classroom and outside of it.

Over the week, the 4th grader handled themselves very responsibly and earned many compliments. It was neat to see them working in different classrooms, interacting with middle school and high school teachers, and blessing others.

This week was a complete success!!!!

The National Honor Society (NHS) is the nation’s premier organization established to recognize outstanding high school students. More than just an honor roll, NHS serves to recognize those students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of scholarship, service, leadership, and character.

On Friday, November 15th, Legacy affirmed 15 students (3 seniors and 12 juniors) as new members to the National Honor Society and recognized the ongoing accomplishments of an additional 9 seniors who were inducted last year.

Please help us in congratulating these exemplary students as new inductees:

Seniors C. Manske, J. Olson, & C. Sharp. Juniors E. Coolbroth, D. Cruz, A. Domeyer, T. Harrison, M. Johnson, M. Johnson, R. Juelich, H. Kendall, K. Sauve, A. Simpson, T. Steffen, P. Stromquist

They join the following seniors as National Honor Society Members: L. Block, K. Darling, J. Davie, A. Hamann, J. Kotelevskaya, M. Nelson, M. Posey, T. Schmidt, W. Schwalbe.

In addition, at the recommendation of this year’s Faculty Council, it was a tremendous privilege to recognize our own Mrs. Kowalchuk with an honorary NHS membership. The honorary membership recognizes the many ways that she, too, has demonstrated the NHS pillars of character, scholarship, leadership, and service to our school, our students, our families, and our community.

We honored all branches of the military this morning with the presenting of the colors by Allegiant Honor Guard and a personal testimony from Marine Veteran Peter Wojciechowski. A special thank you to all who serve and the Legacy Showcase Committee for an honoring event.

What a season the Lady Lions Volleyball program has had! On October 1st, Legacy captured their first conference win in 10 years with an undefeated recored in the MCAA. This garnered the attention of our local paper (ABC Newspapers) with a very flattering write up you can read HERE.

As their regular season ended on Tuesday October 15th, they celebrated a JV season that saw only 3 losses and a Varsity team that earned the 3rd seed for playoffs in Section 4A with an overall record of 16-13. They now look forward to the playoff run which will kick off at HOME on Tuesday October 29th at 7PM for the Section 4A Quarter Final game. With their eyes on advancing to the 2019 State Tournament, fans can expect a high paced, entertaining night of volleyball!

Gate Prices:

$10 Adults & $5 Students/Senior Citizens

(Required of all fans and set by Region 4A)

2019 Section 4A Volleyball Brackets

We had an incredible day of service on Friday, October 4! YouthWorks partnered with us to provide service opportunities that were local, compelling, and authentic. Our students had the opportunity to use various gifts to serve like-minded organizations and the Twin Cities, and in doing so, glorify God. We want our students to be servants, and this day provided an opportunity for students to fulfill our vision for them! Mr. Keefe and Dr. Lohse were able to visit many sites while our students were serving and herd overwhelmingly positive feedback from the site leaders.

“To say that I am proud of them is an understatement.” – Dr. Lohse

“I know God was planting and watering throughout the day Friday in so many hearts, and I thank all of you for being a part of that process.” – Tom Keefe