Mount St. Mary Academy holds fifth annual Service & Justice Days

KENMORE — Mount St. Mary Academy held its fifth annual Service and Justice Days on Tuesday, March 26 and Wednesday, March 27. Instead of holding traditional classes, the school offered 10 different workshops for students to choose, run by school faculty and staff, focusing on multiple aspects of social justice approached through different disciplines.

Mount St. Mary Academy welcomed Marty Gregoire, founder of Footsteps of WNY, as this year’s keynote speaker on Tuesday. Footsteps of WNY is a non-profit organization providing charitable assistance to individuals with Cerebral Palsy by directly purchasing medically prescribed orthopedic and therapeutic devices not covered by insurance.

Gregoire founded the organization in 2011 after speaking about his own journey with Cerebral Palsy within the community. The story of his journey resonated with both the students and faculty of MSM.

The school community experienced two full days’ worth of hands-on learning about real-world problems. Students had the choice of participating in 10 immersive workshops, including: Build-A-Bed, A Collaborative Journey for Justice, Understanding and Inclusivity in Judaism and Islam, Access to Health Care, Environmental & Climate Change – Locally and Globally, Extending the Boundaries, Family Homelessness, Finding the ABLE in DisABILities, Honoring and Acknowledging Native American Culture, I See Me – Because What You Read Matters, and Migrant and Refugee Experience. In multiple workshops, students had the opportunity to meet professionals in each chosen field and go on field trips to local areas around Western New York.

Examples include:

• I See Me – Because What You Read Matters included a visit to the Frank E. Merriweather Jr. Library on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo to meet with Masten District Councilwoman Zeneta Everhart to speak about the Zeneta & Zaire Book Club, a nonprofit book collecting club started by both Councilwoman Everhart and her son, Zaire, after his injury in the May 14th shooting tragedy in Buffalo’s East Side.

• Build a Bed saw students working with Buffalo’s Chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace to build wooden toys for children.

• Access to Health Care took a tour of the Connect Life facility and participated in a CPR and basic First Aid training course with Darrin Strickland from Strictly Business Safety Solutions.

• Environmentalism and Climate Change – Locally and Globally, students created a rain barrel and pollinator garden at Mount St. Mary Academy and visited Reinstein Woods

• Honoring & Acknowledging Native American Culture had students participating in traditional Native American dance & drum circles

“Service and Justice 2024 is at the heart of Mount St. Mary Academy’s Catholic identity: embracing social justice where we live out our call as Christian disciples,” said Rebecca Cefaratti, coordinator for Belonging, Equity, and Inclusion at MSM. “It emphasizes the life and dignity of each human person, care for God’s creation, a call to community engagement, and specific attention to the poor and vulnerable.”