BOWLING GREEN—During the Lenten season, students from the parish religious education program and the parish school of Bowling Green St. Aloysius participated in a project to raise money for the construction of a concrete block house for a Central American family displaced during the destructive 2005 hurricane season.

Bowling Green St. Aloysius students, front from left, Julia Tegge, Elizabeth Snell, Stella DeWitt, and Casey Paluch and back from left, Jacob Radwanski, Jacob Paluch, and Josh Simler, stand in front of the parish’s Lenten project display. (Photo courtesy of Bowling Green St. Aloysius)

Students were encouraged to fast from items that used up their time and money in unhealthy or unproductive ways and to contribute the money they saved to the project. To meet the goal of $3,000, the young people were encouraged to pray, to fast and to give alms.  

Students placed their contributions in envelopes on which they had written what they had given up, and placed them on a display shaped like a house on a wall in the school’s gym.

The project was successful in collecting money but also helped further develop the students’ empathy for those less fortunate than themselves.