SMS students live out Lent with a warm and snug service project

SWORMVILLE — St. Mary School Swormville students are wrapping those in need in warmth and prayer this Lenten season. As part of their Ash Wednesday Retreat, the entire school came together to make fleece prayer blankets that are being distributed to victims of the recent California wildfires.

Many families lost everything during the January 2025 wildfires in the Los Angeles metro area and San Diego County. Although SMS students are on the opposite coast, they wanted to help in whatever way they could. Service is one of the core values at St. Mary School, and ministering to others is a part of every student’s everyday life.

During the Ash Wednesday Retreat, students worked together within their Faith Families, which are multi-age learning and leadership communities, each represented by a Catholic saint, the saint’s symbol, and a color. The Faith Families worked together to bind pieces of fleece to create the blankets. Once the blankets were finished, Father Art Mattulke, senior parochial vicar for St. Mary Parish, blessed them at the Ash Wednesday School Mass. This past week, seventh grade students worked together to box the blankets to send them across the country to victims of the fires, and included a special prayer card with each blanket.

SMS students pray that those who receive these blankets know the love and care that went into making them, and are physically and spiritually warmed by their handiwork.