Marian Catholic High School, Hometown, will celebrate Catholic Schools Week from Jan. 27 through Feb. 1. The celebration will begin with open houses at the high school as well as the Catholic feeder schools in the Carbon-Schuylkill area. This year's Catholic Schools Week theme is "Catholic Schools Raise the Standard."

The celebration will begin with an Open House at Marian, from 1 to 3 p.m., at Marian High School in Rush Township.On Monday, high school students will read the Prayer of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta during announcements. A canned food drive will be held, culminating with a special assembly to weigh the donations. The student donating the most goods will be treated to a NUT (No Uniform Today) treat.A faculty meeting will be held on Tuesday. Students will be treated to ice cream sundaes during lunch, special student recognition announcements and a talent show.A special Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday as students invite military veterans, family and friends, to participate. An honor guard will be present at Mass and a reception will follow. Students and faculty are encouraged to wear read, white and blue.On Thursday, several vocational speakers will be present. The special school day schedule will feature three 20 minute sessions.A special volleyball game will be featured on Friday.Marian Catholic has called a high school built on farmland in Rush Township home since 1964. Now in its 58th year, the school was formed in 1954, which had been declared the Marian Year in honor of the Blessed Mother.At the beginning, Marian freshmen students attended St. Jerome, Tamaqua; sophomores attended St. Ann's, Lansford; and juniors and seniors attended St. Mary's Coaldale. This unique, three-town campus, was created from the former Catholic high schools in those communities. The current campus was constructed in 1964.The nickname of the school's boy's sports teams, Colts, represents the towns from which it drew students, with the C for Coaldale, L for Lansford, T for Tamaqua and S for Summit Hill. The O represents Other communities that sent students to Marian. The three school setup lasted for 10 years before the present school, which is still home to Marian Catholic, was built to accommodate all four grade levels.Marian serves students from parishes both Roman and Byzantine in eastern Schuylkill and Carbon counties and Luzerne County, while extending a welcome to students of other faiths.This year, there are 28 faculty members and 321 students enrolled, with a graduating class of 65.