Advent season brings traditions of service by youth |
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Written by LAURIE STEVENS BERTKE, Chronicle Writer
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Friday, 05 December 2008 01:00 |
During the busy weeks leading up to Christmas, parish and school youth engage in a variety of projects to help their neighbors in need at home and around the world.
To remind Bellevue Immaculate Conception children in the parish school of religion about the true reason for the season, sixth-grade teacher Grace Middleswarth organizes an annual collection called "Gifts for Baby Jesus."
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| Maureen Barcheski, coordinator of the Bowling Green St. Aloysius
extended daycare program, shows first-graders Sam Myers, Dylan Gerkens
and Nolan Barber how to make necklaces as first-grader Adan Bernal
works in the background. The children sell their art and craft projects
in the weeks leading up to Christmas to raise money for the poor.
(Chronicle photo by Laurie Stevens Bertke) |
The elementary school students bring in items like formula, diapers and hats and mittens for toddlers and infants to donate to Abigail Pregnancy Services, a pro-life crisis pregnancy center in Norwalk. "It’s kind of like giving a gift to baby Jesus because these are all His babies anyway," explains Ms. Middleswarth.
She says the project puts the focus on the true meaning of Christmas, and the children "connect with the fact they’re actually helping someone else out."
Other students collect money for charity, like those in the religious education program at Upper Sandusky Transfiguration of the Lord who are saving their spare change during Advent for their local chapter of the American Red Cross, which has worked overtime in the past two years to respond to emergencies in Wyandot County.
Children in the extended daycare program at Bowling Green St. Aloysius raise money for the poor by making and selling their own artwork, crafts and jewelry after school during the holiday season.
They mark prices and arrange the items on a table for parents and other adults to peruse, but ìmost of the time the price signs don’t mean much because the adults usually reach into their pockets and give whatever they have,î Maureen Barcheski, coordinator of extended daycare, writes in an e-mail.
Ms. Barcheski says she has noticed the children do not like to receive a donation unless it is in exchange for one of their creations. "The students feel a pride in their work, no matter how simple it is," she notes. "No receiving is done without giving first, a young testament to the understanding that it is far ‘better to give than to receive.’ "
Personal experiences with people in need can also have a powerful impact on youth during the Advent season.
High school students from the Huron St. Peter youth group make their seventh annual trip to Toledo this month to deck the halls of the Cherry Street Mission. Parishioners have started to anticipate their request for Christmas decorations, and last year the group received so many donations they needed to borrow a truck to transport the items to Toledo, according to youth minister Mary Murphy.
She says the service project exposes the teenagers to urban poverty and gives them the opportunity to learn about some of the services offered through Cherry Street Mission Ministries.
"It’s hands down their favorite service project, primarily because it allows them to interact with some of the clients," adds Ms. Murphy. "For a lot of the kids, it’s transformational in realizing the great need."
Another project has forged a connection between elementary school students from Plymouth St. Joseph and five children in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
The children in the "Faith Encounter" religious education program at St. Joseph raised money last Christmas to help the Mexican children go to school. The Plymouth students are supporting the same children this year.
The project is done through the mission advancement office of the Sisters of St. Francis of Tiffin. Their contact in Cuernavaca is Tiffin Franciscan Sister Margaret Slowick, who established the sponsorship program there.
It costs $240 to sponsor a student for the entire year, and last year the St. Joseph children met their goal of $1,200 by selling raffle tickets to family, friends, parishioners and others in their community, which are entered into a drawing for a variety of prizes. Tiffin Franciscan Sister Barbara Jean Miller, pastoral associate of St. Joseph, says the children raised the money in small increments, selling 12 tickets for $5.
"It’s bigger than us, too, because it’s through the generosity of the community that we can have these baskets," adds Sr. Miller, explaining that local restaurants, businesses and parish families donate items for the themed prize baskets.
The project has fostered friendship between the American and Mexican children, who have been communicating throughout the year using e-mail, with Sr. Slowick as their translator.
"It just softens their hearts when they know somebody personally," says Sr. Miller. "These are real lives, real stories, real people."
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Last Updated on Friday, 06 February 2009 09:36 |
