By GLYNIS HART
[email protected]
CLAREMONT – Students in the John Paul II Academy completed a Lenten community service project by delivering dozens of bags of useful items to the Baby Steps charity on Main Street Tuesday.
“The children were so excited to do this. One of the things they did was make baby blankets,” said Louise Unger, who volunteers at the school.
The donation drive started at the beginning of Lent and finished on Palm Sunday. St. Mary’s parishioners were asked to bring perishable and non-perishable goods to the church to help homeless members of the community.
Baby Steps provides gently used clothing to families in need, maintains a “robust” referral service to places to get fresh food, diapers and basic toiletry supplies, baby blessing baskets for newborn babies, and uplifting women’s and men’s bags.
“We were focusing on corporal works of mercy, the message of Matthew 25:35,” said headmaster Roxanne Raeside-Wilton. “And the children were thinking, what does that whole thing look like?
“It got them focused on homeless people in our community, and it was great for them because they had to think about, ‘If I didn’t have a home, what would I need to survive?’”
Raeside-Wilton said students in her previous parish in Corpus Christi, Texas started Hearts Without a Home, which she wanted to continue when she moved to Claremont last July. For recipients of the donation drive, she chose four missions: women in the unenviable position of having an unplanned pregnancy, mothers who are heads of households, men and women who are homeless, and victims of domestic violence.
“Baby Steps supports all those groups and everything they give them is free,” said Raeside-Wilton.
The drive collected everything from diapers to nail clippers, gift cards to dental floss and personal hygiene items, which are not covered by EBT.
“This was a great project for our students because it made them think about what we can do for other people in our community,” she said.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.