Developing Citizens

“Faith in action is love –and love in action is service.”

- Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Community Service is inherent in a Pope Francis Prep student. It holds as much weight and gravitas as our academic curriculum and students donate countless hours of service to members of the immediate and extended local communities. These service initiatives occur throughout the year, even when school isn’t in session. Service at Pope Francis Prep is not defined by one isolated event or program. It is a constant priority and a passion that lives and breathes throughout the school community.

Several on-campus groups including National Honor Society, Key Club, and the Student Advisory Board have raised money and awareness for a variety of causes. Throughout the last semester, the Pope Francis community has donated toys, clothing, food and (yes, blood!) to various organizations in the greater Springfield area including Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen, Springfield Rescue Mission, Souper Bowl of Caring, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Diocesan Adopt-A-Family for Christmas, Toys for Joy, Lions Club and the American Red Cross.

As Pope Francis Prep students, we receive so much from our teachers. When you receive care like that, you can’t help but want to give back.”

Concurrent with these examples of service to others, students in the Christian Leadership class having been working on Corporal Works of Mercy Service Projects. Students, working in small groups, were assigned to organize a service opportunity for their peers based on selecting one of the Corporal Works of Mercy - to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to give shelter to travelers, to visit the sick, to visit the imprisoned, and to bury the dead.

In addition to selecting a service project with a distinct connection to one of the Corporal Works of Mercy, students were required to provide research and a presentation on the organization receiving support with project outcomes. Some of the projects created were:

Keep Springfield Beautiful: A City Clean-Up Day – Working closely with Keep Springfield Beautiful Board member, Paul Martin, students Alexandra Gonet ’19 and Hannah Ammirato ’19 have organized a spring cleanup within the East Forest Park area of Springfield. Coinciding with Earth Day in April, they plan to lead a group of PFPS students in cleaning up trash accumulated on the side of streets and local parks as a way of showing that students care for their community and mother earth.

Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen: Feeding Body and Soul – Supporting a weekly ministry at St. Rose de Lima Parish in Chicopee, students Rosemary Brault ’19 and Camille Desjardins ’19 are working to coordinate a pool of volunteers to offer Lorraine’s Kitchen with helpers on a consistent basis. Beyond the initial group of students they plan to introduce to volunteering at Lorraine’s Kitchen, they hope that their service project will serve as a template for PFPS students to build service in this way into their lives well into the future.

Baystate Children’s Hospital: Sending Love and Prayers – With a future goal of becoming a physician, Seth Mastroianni ’19 became a regular volunteer in the surgical wing at Baystate Hospital. It is there that he recognized that the hospital’s youngest patients and their families would really benefit from a dose of love and prayers. The idea took hold when, along with Sophie Fitz ’19 and Rachael Shannon ’19, they were assigned the Corporal Works of Mercy project. The love-based project included them enlisting the help of between 15 and 20 students to create Valentine cards containing messages of hope and prayers for healing. They also designed and made a colorful Valentine banner to be hung in the common playroom of the children’s

ward at the hospital. Not deterred by the flu-season imposed reduced visitor rule, the group sought assistance from Jessica Hagerman, Manager of Child Life at Baystate Hospital to learn about the use of gloves while creating the Valentines and to set up a delivery date to the front lobby where hospital staff would then bring it to the children.