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| Students at St. John the Baptist School in Jefferson with donated items for a recent Thanksgiving food drive to support the Jefferson Food Pantry. (Contributed photo) |
JEFFERSON — Students and staff at St. John the Baptist School in Jefferson recently sponsored a number of events and activities that reflect the mission of the school to be the “hands and feet of Christ” for those in need.
Two of the most recent service projects included meeting the needs of the local community as well as those found in countries around the world.
Thanksgiving food drive
Students in eighth grade coordinated the annual Thanksgiving food drive to provide support for the Jefferson Food Pantry.
Almost 600 items were donated and collected by the eighth graders.
After school, first grade teacher Lisa Kotz delivered the boxes of donations to the food pantry.
Clean water effort
In addition to helping the local community, the fifth graders organized a fund-raiser to provide donations that would bring clean drinking water to countries around the world.
Discussions in teacher Heather Devine’s classroom about the millions of people around the world who lack the basics such as clean water led to the discovery of shocking statistics.
They learned that there are about 785 million people living without clean, safe drinking water, which is nearly one in 10 people worldwide.
This is twice the population of the United States without access to life’s most basic human need.
Becoming aware of these disturbing statistics, Devine’s students enthusiastically started planning their “Eats Street” project to sell snacks throughout the school before Halloween.
The fifth graders provided the ingredients and packaging for the snacks, keeping in line with COVID safety protocols by wearing gloves while bagging the food items for sale.
The students, wearing masks, then traveled from classroom to classroom to sell the snack bags.
As a result of the overwhelming support for their efforts, the class raised over $200 that would be sent to Charity: Water.
This organization, formed in 2006, has provided relief for almost 12 million people in over 29 countries, funding about 60,000 water projects.
Ongoing service projects at St. John reflect and emphasize the importance of Catholic teachings about evangelization and discipleship as students and staff, with the support of school parents, fulfill their mission as disciples of Christ.
Margie Schels is a teacher at St. John the Baptist School in Jefferson.