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During Advent, Catholic school students donate food and more
By Denver Catholic Register staff
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Photo provided |
Area food banks received a boost of canned food goods with the help of Holy Family High School this year. After a competition between the freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior classes to gather the most cans, the school in Broomfield collected more than 2,400 items that were donated to food banks at St. Mark Church in Westminster, St. John the Baptist Church in Longmont and Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Northglenn.
Students at Nativity of Our Lord School in Broomfield participated in a charity drive of their own. The students collected dozens of slipper socks, hats, scarves, gloves and mittens for Catholic Charities’ St. Veronica Outreach Ministry that works to prevent homelessness.
Every Friday, Annunciation School in Denver packs and distributes bags filled with non-perishable foods for the benefit of its students and their families. It’s the second year the school has participated in the Food Bank of the Rockies’ Totes of Hope program when children are sent home Fridays with bags of food, often the main source of food for their families on the weekends. On Dec. 2, fifth-grade students worked with employees from Morgan Stanley, a financial services company that donates to Totes of Hope, to pack and distribute the bags to the 143 students that participate in the program, said Sarah Grey, assistant principal. “We’re fortunate we’re one of the schools that can benefit,” she said.
Students at Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora participated in multiple activities leading up to Christmas. The boys and girls divisions combined to collect several thousand cans of food, and made 200 Christmas baskets, to benefit St. Joseph Parish in Denver. They donated toiletries and winter clothing to Urban Peak, a homeless shelter for youth; new books for the Tennyson Center’s literacy program; and raised $4,000 for Father Woody’s Haven of Hope, a soup kitchen and resource center for the homeless. They also supported their sister school in Belize, Rocky Mountain Head Start, St. Francis Center, and the Parker Task Force.
St. Catherine of Siena School in Denver raised $50 for the parish’s Giving Tree with Red and Green Day Dec. 16. On that day students could donate $1 or a non-perishable food item to take a holiday from their uniforms and wear jeans and a Christmas top. They collected nearly 100 canned food items for the parish food pantry.
Second-graders at St. Mary School in Littleton carried on a tradition started in kindergarten: working on a community service project in place of a traditional Christmas party at school. This year 48 students from two classes spent time Dec. 16 filling 50 bags with toiletries—donated by their families—that were distributed at the parish’s food bank Dec. 19.
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