TOLEDO—Tutoring young children, painting ceilings and scrubbing walls are not the fun activities most teenagers enjoy on a day off from school. However, St. John’s Jesuit High School students are serving the Padua Center in a variety of ways during the summer, after school and on their days off.

St. John’s Jesuit senior Thomas White, at right, is a familiar face in the Padua Center tutoring room.(Photo courtesy of St. John’s Jesuit High School)

The Diocese of Toledo opened the Padua Center, located in the former Toledo St. Anthony of Padua rectory on Nebraska Avenue, in 2006.  

The mission of the center is to be a Christian community-based presence empowering people at all stages of life to achieve their maximum potential though education, counseling, support and community involvement.

Padua Center programs are based on the principles of Kwanzaa (Nguzo Saba): unity (Umoja), self-determination (Kujichagulia), collective work (ujima), cooperative economics (ujamaa), purpose (nia), creativity (kuumba) and faith (imani).

Opening the neighborhood center has provided a variety of service opportunities for St. John’s Jesuit students, from helping to refurbish the older facility to providing services the neighborhood needs. The young men have given freely of their time and talents to do whatever has needed to be done starting last summer with juniors Andrew and David Gaillardetz who served in the summer camp.  

“David came every day to summer camp. Andrew came several days a week while working on the playground for his Eagle Scout project. Senior Jake Moritz helped landscape,” explains Tiffin Franciscan Sister Virginia Walsh, director of Padua Center.

Two other seniors, Alex Chrysanthou and Thomas White tutor weekly at Padua Center during the school year and this fall junior and senior students helped with renovations to the building, from scrubbing walls to scraping to the final coat of paint.

On their day off Joe Miller, Mike Quinto, Byron Thompson and Daniel Vetter spent time scrubbing, scraping and painting some of the rooms under the direction of Phil Skeldon, Christian Service director and Kim Hall, Christian Service coordinator.

“We are extremely appreciative of Mr. Skeldon. He has the young men take their own initiative and lets their natural leadership happen,” says Sr. Walsh.

“One of the things it has been neat to see is the young men giving so much of their time to help others. Spending time in life to get ahead, you don’t see it in these young men,” she adds.

“An important part of Jesuit education is encouraging ‘compassion of heart.’ The service work our young men provide to Padua Center is much more beneficial to them than it is to Padua Center,” states Tim Malone, St. John’s Jesuit principal. “We are privileged to be a small part of the very important work they are doing,”