MADISON — Blessed Sacrament School (BSS) believes in service learning.
We form servant leaders by having children practice as they grow through their elementary school years.
Our school’s theme this year is, “In the Potter’s Hands.”
Are we fully formed or still being molded? We believe that we are all, children and adults, still being molded.
Our students have many opportunities to practice servant leadership.
Older students mentor younger ones, sit by them in Mass, and help them during our quarterly projects.
Our most recent service project was collecting toys, toiletries, socks, and small personal items to share with children across the world via the Operation Christmas Child (OCC) program.
Each box also has a Christmas card made by one of our students and information from Samaritan’s Purse, the organization overseeing OCC, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Students packed more than 300 boxes at BSS earlier this year.
Older students worked with their younger buddies to pack the boxes. Before taking them to the collection site, the students stood with Fr. Andy McAlpin, OP, Blessed Sacrament’s pastor, to bless the boxes and to pray for their eventual recipients.
Earlier this fall, we held our annual Hunger March and students raised more than $28,000 by collecting pledges from friends and family.
The funds are being sent to charities dealing with hunger, its impact, and hunger mitigation including the St. Vincent de Paul Society food bank, Second Harvest Food Bank, the Catholic Multicultural Center meal program and culinary training program, the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters Collaborative Farm Project, the Tanzanian Orphan Project, and as a special emergency fund for groceries that can be tapped by school families facing a job loss or other unexpected difficulty.
In addition, this year, funds will also go to emergency food banks in areas impacted by hurricanes.