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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2009 /  Catholic service

by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 23, 2009

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Autumn Gubert-Bullington, a first-grader at St. Damian in Westland, helped feed the poor by donating to the St. Mary food pantry in Wayne.

Metro area — The finest education in the world is of no use if the student doesn't act on what he or she has learned. And in Catholic education, that's especially true when it comes to learning about Christian charity.

"It's important that we practice what we preach," says David Brush, a 17-year-old senior at Gabriel Richard High School in Riverview. "We talk all the time about giving, showing compassion, reaching out to the poor and stuff — but it doesn't mean anything if you don't actually go out and do it. There's no point to teach it if you're not going to apply it."

Being a student heavily involved in Christian service projects through his high school, Brush is among thousands in local Catholic schools who learn about charity each year by rolling up their sleeves and helping those in need.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic St. Damian second-grade students show off some of the food they collected this school year to stock the St. Mary, Wayne, food pantry. From left: Zachary Junttonen, Marie Topolski and Angelina Ferro. Catholic schools across the Archdiocese of Detroit, and the country, make service an integral part of education.

Beginning Jan. 25, Catholic school students here and across the country will celebrate Christian service during the annual Catholic Schools Week, a tradition started in 1974, and continued through the National Catholic Educational Association.

Each year, Catholic Schools Week focuses on a different theme. This year, NCEA president Karen Ristau says it was "natural" to choose the theme "Celebrate Service," because service is such an integral part of Catholic education.

"Civic engagement is a hallmark of Catholic education," Ristau says. "The majority of elementary and secondary schools participate in service projects ranging from collecting canned goods for the homeless to rebuilding schools in the hurricane-torn gulf."

Brush

Metro Detroit schools offer their students a wealth of service opportunities. Through the Gabriel Richard campus ministry program, students such as Brush and his classmate, senior Jill Jablonski, can participate in — or even run — a wide array of service projects. Some include blood drives, recycling programs, helping senior citizens shovel snow, volunteering at soup kitchens, helping those with developmental challenges with sports programs, and helping teach religious education to youths.

"If you have a particular interest, you can really pick what you like and go out and help people," says Jablonski, who has taken charge of a number of service projects, most recently organizing a blood drive. "It makes you feel good about it, too. You come back from it and you're like, 'I made that person's day a little brighter just by being there.'"

Sr. Theresa Mayrand, OP, who oversees Gabriel Richard's campus ministry, points to the Gospel message from Matthew 25:35-36 where Christ rewards those who cared for Him, saying, "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me."

"We take our Christianity seriously," Sr. Mayrand says. "And that's what Jesus was about, serving others." Though older students are better able to get involved in service projects — and more able to do so at their own initiative — the lessons start long before high school.

Elementary schools across the archdiocese all find some way to let their students experience Christian service. Many have various projects throughout the year.

St. Dunstan Catholic School in Garden City is one of them.

"We're always looking for more ways and different ways to do service," says Donald Lipinski, principal of St. Dunstan. "At Catholic schools, we always talk about service year-round, every year. Not just when it's the theme for Catholic Schools Week. We strive to have service go K to 8, across the board, to get all the kids involved."

This year, St. Dunstan has held a few major charitable undertakings, including a charity walk to raise money to cure diabetes, a nonperishable food drive to stock the parish food pantry for the needy, and a giving tree, through which children donate warm clothing for the less fortunate.

Crunk

"It helps a lot of people," says Sadie Crunk, a 13-year-old eighth grader, of the Christian service she's able to do through St. Dunstan. "And there's not a lot of people today who would go out and do it."

Sadie, who also sometimes serves as a lector at church, says adults are gratified at seeing younger people volunteer. She says she had some adults, after seeing her volunteer to read at church, ask her to help out at a Christmas dinner the parish cooks for those with no place to go. It's not a venue where you'll find many younger volunteers, she says.

"They like to see kids reading," Sadie says. "And then you can help out with other things that they usually don't ask kids to do."

Deeter

Emily Deeter, a sixth-grader at St. Dunstan, says participating in service projects at a young age can help anyone who witnesses the service — and it can even help her when she gets older.

"We can maybe influence other kids, and they can start doing it," says Deeter, 11 — who, like schoolmate Sadie, also reads at Mass. "If you continue doing service at school, then it might carry on with you throughout the rest of your life, and you might just find yourself doing more good things at home or in other places."

Emily has the right idea, her principal says. Lipinski says he had a recent graduate visit him who, through his own initiative, helped out at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in Detroit.

"Those are the ideals that are taught here at a young age in a Catholic school," he says. "That's what you want them to do. You want them — as they're older, when they leave and are in high school and college — to continue doing service on their own because they want to do it, and they know it's the right thing to do."

Photo courtesy of Gabriel Richard High School Jill Jablonski, a senior at Gabriel Richard High School, grates vegetables during a volunteer trip to the St. Leo Soup Kitchen in Detroit.

Every school in the Archdiocese of Detroit has service projects in which their students participate. Responding to a request from The Michigan Catholic made to all Catholic schools in the archdiocese, here's what some schools in the archdiocese have planned for Catholic Schools Week and, in some cases, at other times throughout the year:

• The many Christian service projects performed at Marian High School in Bloomfield Hills throughout the year have benefited programs such as the Children's Hospital Festival of Trees, Oakland County Jail Ministry, Ladies of Charity, Angels' Place, St. Christine Food Pantry, Oakland County Sheriff Department's Coats for the Cold Program, Ste. Anne Church, the Bloomfield Hills Optimist Holiday Wish Program, the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, Gleaners Community Food Project, Students Against Drunk Driving and the St. Rose Center for Seniors. Marian students have collected gifts for and visited many of the organizations this school year.

• Each year, Loyola High School in Detroit holds a day of service following the Martin Luther King Jr., holiday. This year, it fell the week before Catholic Schools Week. Loyola students will be volunteering that day at food pantries, soup kitchens, nursing homes, homeless shelters, food warehouses and community centers.

• St. Mary School in Mount Clemens has planned a full Catholic Schools Week of charity events. Students will make cards for shut-ins; write thank–you cards for neighbors to the schools, and then for their parents; bring in donations for military troops; and provide breakfast for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and for the school staff.

Photo courtesy of Ladywood High School Ladywood students help stock the St. Patrick Senior Center food pantry.

• Students at Holy Redeemer School in southwest Detroit already completed a canned food drive for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and have raised nearly $300 for leukemia research. Currently, they're collecting goods for the St. Leo Soup Kitchen in Detroit. Throughout the year, Holy Redeemer students participate in a "caught being good" project, in which students can be "caught" doing charity and "written up" with a certificate, and possibly be given the honor of choosing a charity to receive a $75 donation.

• Since St. Alfred School in Taylor is having its 100th day of school during Catholic Schools Week, the school has set a goal of collection 100 boxes of food for the poor. Also, a red, white and blue dress-down day, which will cost each student $1, will benefit U.S. military members; money from the day will buy phone cards for overseas troops.

• Students at St. Edward on the Lake in Lakeport have been challenged to commit a 100 acts of kindness this school year. Students caught doing kind deeds will have their names and the deeds posted on a bulletin board in the school hallway. Students also will write thank you letters to parishioners to be placed in the Sunday church bulletins. Year-round, the students also hold canned food drives and are encouraged to help younger classmates and serve in the school lunch room.

• Students at Our Lady of Victory School in Northville are raising funds during Catholic Schools Week to help build a brand new Catholic school in Uganda. Also, through a "Buddy Project," students are making Valentine cards and placemats for residents of a local nursing home. Eighth-graders at the school will serve their fellow students bagels after an all-school Mass on Jan. 28. Earlier this year, the school's students made 36 blankets to donate to the American Red Cross.

• St. Mary School in Rockwood is having students bring in a different food item for each day of Catholic Schools Week to help stock the parish food pantry.

• Students at St. Germaine Catholic School in St. Clair Shores have participated in an array of service activities, including adopt-a-family at Christmas; fundraisers for leukemia patients, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and a children's camp for the disadvantaged; food collections; clothing and supply drives for St. Vincent De Paul and St. Margaret's McWarm organization; and a Jump Rope for Heart event for the American Heart Association.

• Wyandotte Catholic Consolidated School each month sponsors a Make a Difference Day. In January, they will raise funds for the Wyandotte Animal Shelter. Already this year, students at the school have collected food items for the Downriver Food Pantry; toiletries to be distributed through the Christnet organization; and hats, mittens and socks for the Wyandotte Salvation Army and the Downriver Food Pantry.

• The confirmation class at St. Clare of Montefalco School in Grosse Pointe Park gave of their time and abilities on Jan. 10 to host a vocation dinner sponsored by the parish's Knights of Columbus. About 30 seventh- and eighth- graders seated people, served coffee and tea, cleared dishes and offered dessert to those attending the event, which was meant to encourage vocations.

• Students from each grade at St. Edith School in Livonia will bring in different food items to help stock St. Christine Soup Kitchen in Detroit. The students also have visited and sang at senior homes, sent water bottles to the victims of Hurricane Ike, welcomed impaired children of Old Village School in Northville into the St. Edith school building, and given food and gifts to the less fortunate around Christmas and Thanksgiving.

• At St. Valentine School in Redford Township, students have raised money for the St. Vincent de Paul phone-a-thon and for breast cancer research; and has planned to purchase an acre of rainforest for preservation. Students in lower grades make cards for the elderly and military members. Junior high students send shoe boxes with gifts and Christian messages to poor children in countries around the world. And older students have visited the elderly and even decorated a senior home for the holidays.

• Students at St. Genevieve School in Livonia will be recognizing the service of its community during Catholic Schools Week by writing thank you notes to fire fighters, police officers, members of the military and veterans hospitals. The school also will collect hygiene and cleaning supplies for the St. Genevieve pantry.

• Throughout January, students at Bishop Foley High School in Madison Heights will collect coats and socks to be distributed at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, food for the Detroit Rescue Mission, donations for families of military service men and women who died in service, and donations to be distributed through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

• St. Robert Bellarmine in Redford Township will be collecting personal care items and supplies for the Redford Interfaith Relief organization. The school's student council will oversee the project.

• Each year, Holy Family Regional School in Rochester Hills chooses a charity to support during Catholic Schools Week. This year, the school has chosen to sponsor a program through Leader Dogs for the Blind, a Rochester Hills agency that trains guide dogs.

• Throughout the year, students at St. Dennis School in Royal Oak write letters for shut-ins, collect money for the Michigan Humane Society, facilitate their own recycling program, visit a senior center, help with the healing Mass for seniors and at a warming center, and help with various fundraisers, such as a craft show, mom-to-mom sale and fruit sale.

• Middle school students at Holy Cross Catholic School in Marine City during Catholic Schools Week will write Valentine letters to residents at local nursing homes, while elementary students will fundraise for a local child who is undergoing cancer treatment. Fourth- and fifth-graders will collect quarters for the Feed the Starving Children program. The special projects compliment a year's worth of service at Holy Cross, which also includes food collections on each first Friday, food drives, and collections of personal hygiene products for the homeless and comfort items for soldiers overseas.

• On Wednesday of Catholic Schools Week, St. Charles Borromeo in Newport has a Mission Wednesday Mass, during which students take up a special collection to help children through the PIME missionaries. Throughout the year, the student council at St. Charles also helps raise money for the PIME's Foster Parents Mission Club, to improve the lives of poor foster children.

• In Warren, Regina High School plans a different service project each month. During Catholic Schools Week, students will assemble craft boxes to be donated to Children's Hospital of Michigan. Shortly after, their February project will include volunteering at a local food pantry, soup kitchen or warming center.

• In addition to a plethora of service projects held throughout the year, Mercy High School in Farmington Hills expects 100 students during Catholic Schools Week to participate in Blanketed with Love, a program to make 100 blankets for St. Patrick Senior Center in Detroit. As "service" is identified by Mercy as one of the school's five "core values," students each year have a variety of service projects. A few include Habitat for Humanity, the Mercy Education Project to benefit inner-city children, a food drive for Focus:HOPE, and fundraising for Karmanos and Mercy Health Care breast cancer research.

• Students at St. Mary School in Royal Oak will be writing letters and drawing pictures for troops overseas during Catholic Schools Week. They also do special service activities on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, including assisting at the parish warming shelter, providing lunches for the homeless and decorating prayer cards to those served at the warming center.

• At Sacred Heart Catholic School in Dearborn, students have an annual canned food drive for Detroit homeless shelters during the holidays; collect money for the Forgotten Harvest organization; and older students prepare meals at St. Leo Soup Kitchen. The school also donates various animals to people in impoverished conditions around the world through the organization Heifer International.

• In Berkely, students at Our Lady of La Salette are benefiting Mother & Unborn Baby Care – a crisis pregnancy center in Lathrup Village – by collecting baby items on Jan. 28, and by having a fundraising drive on Jan. 30. The fundraiser is carnival-themed, with students giving their donations and participating in activities such as games, karaoke, balloons and painting.

• St. Sabina School in Dearborn Heights will give each student a Corporal Works of Mercy bookmark, and ask the student to do one of the good deeds on their own. The school also will collect food items during Catholic Schools Week for the parish's St. Vincent de Paul society.

• Students at St. Stephen School in New Boston will be collecting a different personal hygiene items each day of Catholic Schools Week. They will be distributing kits for the poor and homeless through the parish's Christ net ministry, held at the St. Stephen activity center.

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