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Students spend spring break serving poor
Catholic schools mark Holy Week with charity
By Ambria Hammel, The Catholic Sun
April 3, 2008
While many Catholics spent Holy Thursday reflecting on Last Supper teachings, others spent it modeling Jesus’ loving acts.
Students at Pope John Paul XXIII School in Scottsdale held a “Fill That Truck” food drive for the poor that day. They brought in 320 cases — nearly 5,000 pounds — of food and drink for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul during Holy Week.
“I’ve learned that our school can really make a difference,” eighth-grader Kate Mailliard said. She helped organize the collection after recognizing that St. Vincent de Paul clients don’t have as much as most families at her school.
“And because we can help them, we should,” Mailliard added.
The food drive was only one of many service projects that schools throughout the diocese engaged in just before and during their spring break last month. Some projects took a few minutes while others lasted a few days, but each one taught the students how to recognize and respond to those in need.
Sixth-graders at Ss. Simon and Jude School made Easter placemats for the elderly at a nearby senior home.
“It’s not just giving stuff, it’s making a difference in somebody’s life,” said Linda Fischetti, the school’s religion curriculum coordinator.
Many of the service projects doubled as a gift to someone else: the pope. More than 2,000 people from the Phoenix Diocese joined roughly 88,000 Catholics nationwide who dedicated their spring service hours to Pope Benedict XVI.
The dedication is a birthday present to the pontiff who will turn 81 during his first U.S. visit later this month. It will be given from the National Catholic Educational Association on behalf of students in Catholic schools, religious education programs and seminaries across the country.
“Pope Benedict XVI has inspired us all to reach out and be the hands and feet of Christ,” said Barbara Stanley, who heads the theology department at Notre Dame Preparatory in Scottsdale.
She saw that come to fruition through 18 of her students last month when they gave up their spring break to volunteer at a Sisters of St. Joseph mission in Tijuana. The teens spent seven hours a day refinishing church pews and cleaning the orphanage’s yard.
They learned about life in the area while working alongside local children.
“Outside the market there are homes made out of tents and cardboard” and garage doors, sophomore Sean Morrow said. He went on Notre Dame’s “Hands Across the Border” trip for the first time last month because he wanted to experience poverty and the struggles people living in it face daily.
Carol Caruso, a counselor at Bourgade Catholic High School, said her school’s house-building project also opened her students’ eyes.
Nearly 60 students gave up the comforts of sleeping in and lounging around the house during their spring break to sleep on the floor in Tijuana and build houses for three of its families.
“We’ve had kids crying on both ends when they have to say goodbye,” Caruso said.
Senior Jessica Levine has said goodbye and returned. She is over the culture shock and has accepted that homes are often makeshift and bathrooms are holes in the ground.
“As much as you want to feel disgusted, you feel so fortunate that you can do something to help them,” Levine said.
In three days, nearly 60 Bourgade students transformed piles of dirt, bags of cement and a stack of wood into three 11-by-22 foot homes.
“We also give them supplies to get them started in their new home,” Levine said. They pump money back into the Mexican economy by buying housewarming gifts such as brooms, sponges and soap at the local market.
The students also visit families from previous spring break trips to see that their work has a profound effect on the community.
“I hope for a true resurrection experience for all of the students who are there, that we’re not on this earth for ourselves,” Caruso said. “We’re here for others.”
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