What next?

Greetings--I'm finally getting around to editing this web page.

As you may know, we are working on a new initiative to connect our students more closely to Catholic social justice teaching, and our current task is to get involved in more service with the Soup Opera, our neighboring soup kitchen and food pantry. In case you missed it, here is our letter soliciting parent involvement:

October 30, 2008

Dear Parents of Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Graders,

We know that you are familiar with our traditional social service activities here at Fairmont Catholic—the Thanksgiving food drive, the Christmas stockings, and the Penny Sabotage through which we raise money for various causes—as well as the special projects we do and the ongoing service of the National Junior Honor Society. We are grateful for your continued support of these activities and we know that they have value in the lives of our students.

Starting last year with our Catholic Social Justice retreat for seventh and eighth graders, we have embarked on a new phase of our school-wide commitment to service. In this phase, we are working toward helping the students make connections between the service projects and the people those projects serve. We hope to encourage students to understand service more personally, and to develop their own personal commitment to serve our neighbors.

To this end, we have begun a partnership with the Soup Opera—a service agency that is literally our neighbor, with its building right across the street from our school. Students in the lower grades are doing collection projects, but we hope to have students in the upper grades connect to the agency by actually doing on-site service. Sixth graders would start with building services, including stocking shelves and sorting; older students could be involved in client services—rolling silverware for meals and serving drinks at meals, for example. Our hope is that this contact will both help the students develop a deeper understanding of service and inspire them to think about what they might do as service projects of their own.

Because the Soup Opera can only accommodate a small number of students at any one time, releasing a teacher from class to accompany the work groups will not be feasible over the long term. For this project to work, it will be necessary to have a group of parent volunteers who can accompany the work groups. We are writing this letter to ascertain if there are parents who are interested in taking on this task.

If you would be interested in volunteering, please contact us as soon as possible. If there are enough parent volunteers to move forward with this project, we would like to get started before the holiday rush.

Thanks for considering this project. Even if you are unable to volunteer, we hope you will keep this undertaking in your prayers.

God bless you.


Cynthia Garcia Jason Lake
Project Coordinators, Upper Grades

We have had some response from a few parents and hope to set up a meeting soon after Thanksgiving break. Parents, if you are interested, it's not too late to join in! Give me a call or email me at school.