Service is a tradition at St. Mary School Swormville

SWORMVILLE — This time of year, many of us are getting ready to delve into our own traditions of roasting a turkey, buying gifts, or decorating our homes. But the students at St. Mary School Swormville are keeping up their long-standing tradition of service projects for others.

As a part of her religion class, Julie Leong has been working with her eighth graders on developing monthly service projects. These projects are entirely student led. Students are required to identify a need, make all necessary contacts, clear dates with the school, determine participants, manage volunteers, and tap into many other skills needed for successful project management. Some projects they have developed are school-wide, while others  involve just the eighth grade or another class or small group. Leong noted, “Involvement in community service allows the students to take their lessons beyond the classroom and learn how their actions can make the world a better place.”

In October, eighth graders met with the school’s facilities manager to explore what needed to be done around campus for a fall cleanup. They discussed the areas of greatest need, what tools they would need, and picked a date. The students tackled the yard work and did an amazing job. This project was of service not only to our hard-working facilities and maintenance employees, but to our school and parish populations who use the campus, and of course showed stewardship of God’s beautiful creation, our Earth. Click here to see photos of the project.

In November, the eighth graders worked together with the second grade to adopt a U.S. Air Force Platoon. They collected 21 boxes of needed supplies like toothbrushes, lip balm, beef jerky, playing cards, socks, baby wipes, and deodorant from the entire school. These items will be shipped overseas and help make the lives of the deployed servicemen and women a bit easier while they are away from home and their families during the Christmas season. Second grade teacher Colleen Wojtaszek had this to say about the project, “We felt like November would be the perfect time to give, especially with Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. Our students are learning about the virtue of generosity,  and what a wonderful opportunity for the whole school to come together and provide for others in need, especially those who sacrifice so much.” Click here to see our students with the boxes ready to be shipped out.

The eighth grade is already looking ahead to Advent and December by reviving a long-standing service project that was a tradition at SMS prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. They’ll be helping families in Buffalo’s East Side, served by the Franciscan Sisters of St. Agnes’ Convent, by providing Christmas gifts and gift cards. These families would have no other Christmas gifts without the generosity of our students and school families. Students prepared a letter that went home from all grade levels, requesting donations of gifts or gift cards for the children and their parents. The gifts will be collected at school on Dec. 15th, and delivered to the families in need before Christmas.