Toledo St. Charles Borromeo School students present mugs they collected for a Lenten service project to COMPASS. From left are students Sheala Ervin and Andrew Rassel, COMPASS kitchen manager Garry Mulkey and CEO Bill Sanford and students Xaiver Williams and Marissa Cantu. (photo courtesy of St. Charles Borromeo School)

Students at the St. Charles Borromeo campus of Toledo Central City Ministries School collected more than 400 coffee mugs during Lent to donate to COMPASS.

 “The students wanted to do something that would help people in the community who are struggling,” says Stephanie Soltes, fifth-grade teacher at St. Charles and organizer of the project. “This was a simple and inexpensive way to assist COMPASS, an organization that helps so many people.”

The students sought donations of coffee mugs at home, from neighbors, family, friends and local businesses. “The children had fun doing it, and their efforts are truly in the spirit of the Lenten season,” adds Ms. Soltes.

Garry Mulkey, COMPASS kitchen manager says the mugs will be used in the cafeteria by patients and visitors. “It’s much nicer to drink a hot beverage from a mug rather than a disposable cup. We try to make everyone feel welcome as a part of our treatment philosophy, and using mugs rather than paper or Styrofoam is much more welcoming," says Mr. Mulkey. “Plus, the mugs will cut down on our paper products budget and is more ecologically-friendly.”

Four eighth-graders, Ms. Soltes and St. Charles principal Paul Conrad delivered the mugs to COMPASS on Holy Thursday on behalf of the students and staff at the school.

The next day, students from St. John’s Jesuit High School spent Good Friday doing “a Good Deed.”

As a community service project, 65 members of the St. John’s lacrosse team, along with family members and friends, spent Good Friday preparing an old building for renovation into a new addiction treatment center. The volunteers hauled out old carpeting, ceiling tiles and fixtures at 1916 12th St., where COMPASS is to open a new outpatient treatment center later this year.  

 “The dollars we save through volunteer support for the project will go directly toward patient care,” says William D. Sanford, president and CEO of COMPASS. As a nonprofit organization serving some of the community’s neediest people, the organization is utilizing community support such as the St. John’s Good Friday project to save on costs associated with the move from its present Adams Street location.