Category: Stewardship

3rd Grade Stewardship

(December 21, 2022)  Third graders at St. Philomena are focusing on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy for their classroom stewardship this school year. Since the 2014-15 school year, our third graders have had a relationship with residents at Buehler Home.

Through the years they have prayed daily for the residents, made lots of decorations for doors and windows to brighten up their homes and recreation areas, gone caroling, played games and puzzles with residents, read stories together and even conducted interviews so they could get to better know their Buehler friends.

The pause to those visits during the COVID-19 pandemic made third graders all realize how much they really love going to Buehler Home. The teachers had to find ways to connect with them in the absence of personal visits. Things like sending the link for the Christmas program livestream so the residents can enjoy our students’ performance.

Mrs. Morgan Fehl and Mrs. Traci Heppard, third grade teachers, feel that the service to Buehler Home residents opens up the students’ eyes to the world around them.

“We become so focused on our own lives, we need to see that there are people suffering and lonely. People who receive no cards or visits from family,” shared Mrs. Fehl. This reality strikes a chord with the students when they think about a birthday or holidays without cards or family.

The teachers focus on the importance of keeping things simple, the service doesn’t have to be a grand gesture. “We’ve found that just reading a book is one of the residents’ favorite things to do,” said Mrs. Fehl.

One of the goals of Mrs. Fehl and Mrs. Heppard is showing and helping the students to learn and build a life of service at a young age. “A life of service is so important. A card seems small, but it can brighten someone’s day,” stated Mrs. Fehl. “We want them [students] to continue a life of service. Our hope is that they continue to grow in this way.”

5th Grade Stewardship

(November 21, 2022) — Fifth graders at St. Philomena are participating in the “St. Gianna Ministry” project as their service focus this school year. The goal of this project is to connect with mothers who are expecting a child and then provide a gift bag once the baby is born.

Each month on the second Sunday, pregnant mothers are invited to receive a special blessing after Mass. On those weekends students from fifth grade are present to read an announcement and greet the parents before Father David’s blessing.

Kevin Crusen, Irving Hughes, Caroline McKee and Jacob Wilburn are among the students who have read the announcement at Mass so far. Not only are the students helping a family in our parish, they are gaining valuable skills like public speaking, greeting people they may not know, and organization.

“The first time I spoke I felt nervous, but now I feel more confident speaking publicly,” said Kevin. The other students agreed. Said Irving, “At school Mass there are a lot of people, it’s the whole school. But on the weekend it’s more spread out. Once I did it the first time, I felt better after that.”

“There are three Masses we do each weekend. Saturday evening and then at 9 o’clock and 11 o’clock on Sunday morning. One person reads and the others are there for support or as a backup in case the reader can’t come,” said Caroline. “The teachers are always there, too.”

While Father David is greeting people after Mass, the students meet the expectant parents at the statue of Mary. They hand each family a paper with a QR code that directs them to an online form to complete.

“On the form we ask them when their baby will be born, if they know if it’s a boy or girl, is there anything they really need. When the baby is born we plan to deliver the gift bags,” said Jacob.

Elise Fahey is part of the group who is helping put together the wish lists on Amazon and assembling the gift bags with those items that are purchased. She said “On the wish list we have diapers, baby bottles, bibs, pacifiers, blankets, baby shampoo. Our teacher also added some items for the moms.”

Elise explained that the teacher emailed the wish list to everyone in the class. Fifth grade families can order from that Amazon list and items are sent to school. Those students who signed up to help with packaging will then work on those bags for the expectant mothers. Caroline said, “I’m really excited about giving the gift bags out.”

The students estimate that they have heard from about 8 to 10 expectant moms and dads so far in just two months of their project. They know that there is one baby due in December, a few in January and February and four in March. After Christmas break they will be very busy preparing for the newest little Tigers in our parish family.

If you know of a family in our parish who is expecting a baby, please let them know about this project and that they are invited to our monthly blessing. If you have questions or would like to receive the wish list to purchase an item, contact either of our fifth grade teachers: Mrs. Emily Esparza (emilespa@stphils.com) or Mr. Rick Mathern (rickmath@stphils.com).

6th Grade Stewardship

(October 28, 2022) Sixth grade’s stewardship focus this year is hunger. They have several activities planned throughout the year that lead up to their final project, the Hunger Feast. To kick things off, they are organizing a food drive for November 7-11, 2022.

Four students, Sloan Cranford, Calvin Cusack, Chloe Dean and Harper Kobler, gave up three recess days to create a PowerPoint slide show that will be presented to all classrooms on November 4. All sixth graders will be a part of presenting the slides made by these four classmates.

Each day of the drive has a special theme. “Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. (Sally) Kincaid gave us the subject for each day and then we put together the presentation. The themes are Macaroni Monday, Toiletry Tuesday, Cleaning Supplies, Fruits and Vegetables, and Boxed Foods,” explained Harper.

Sloan explained that cleaning supplies can be “Anything that can be used to clean. Wet wipes, sponges, Clorox spray.”

When talking about the presentation, Chloe shared “I’m really excited to present to the younger kids. I want to see how they react to the fun things we put in the slides.” Sloan went on to say, “I’m not really nervous about presenting to other kids. I feel like no matter what, they’re going to be nice because it’s for a good cause.”

Students should place donation items in their classroom boxes, provided by 6^th grade. “Every classroom collects their stuff and then we (6^th graders) will go around during our recess time and pick it up,” said Calvin.

All of the students remembered the food drive from past years, either because they had older siblings involved in the drive or because they themselves brought in items. “When I was younger I remember going to WalMart and picking up things with my family,” said Chloe.

During past drives, the students recalled seeing classrooms bring in anywhere from two to 50 items each in one day. “We hope we’ll get a lot of pieces, I mean we have 500 kids here at school,” said Sloan. Added Chloe, “Sometimes it’s kind of like an unspoken battle between classmates and classes.”

To get the students thinking about service and what it means, they recently completed a group presentation answering questions such as what is service and how can we show it. They then presented to their classmates using videos, slide shows, posters, songs, raps, and commercials. All four students agreed that the assignment was fun and interesting.

The entire 6^th grade will deliver the school’s donations to Sophia’s Kitchen on November 18. This includes packing the vehicles with the items, and then unpacking and bringing items inside at the kitchen. “I’m really excited to bring everything to Sophia’s Kitchen,” said Sloan. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been there.”

On October 27, Dominica Rogers from Midwest Food Bank came to St. Philomena to talk to the 6th grade on food insecurities, food deserts and hunger. Sixth graders will take a field trip to the Midwest Food Bank on December 2 for hands-on experience in what happens at the Food Bank and to gain an understanding of what service is really about. After Christmas break, Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Kincaid will kick-off the Hunger Feast with the students and really begin preparing for the spring event.

“We’re excited to host the Hunger Feast again. It’s truly something they will remember for the rest of their lives. To see students actually plan and execute this event, it’s such a beautiful project,” said Mrs. Murphy.

7th Grade Stewardship

(September 23, 2022) – Last year, Mrs. Sue Tony’s homeroom (6T), wrote letters to senior parishioners who were homebound, maybe couldn’t get out as much as they used to or don’t have family in the area with them. This effort was so successful and well-received that when Mrs. Tony moved to a 7^th grade homeroom this year, she decided to continue sending the cards and Mrs. Colleen Donlan’s classroom (7D) is also on board. This year they have been able to add even more parishioners to the list.

Briana Hernandez and Theodore Girsch are currently 7^th graders and were in 6T last year. “It made us feel good that we were reaching out to our community and helping other people,” said Briana.

The card recipients were thrilled and started writing cards back to the students. From there a pen pal relationship evolved. “They would tell us that we cheered up their day and they were hoping for more letters from us later on,” said Briana.

“We were told that they decorated their rooms with our cards,” added Theodore. He continued, “Our cards were themed with the holidays and sometimes they would tell us a story about their holidays when they were younger.”

The students said that at Christmas their pen pals unexpectedly sent them hot chocolate bombs, a very fun surprise. And while they weren’t writing to receive hot chocolate bombs in return, you can see that beautiful things happened between the generations by building community.

In addition to the pen pal relationship, both seventh grade classes have chosen to serve St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and its patients this year. While it’s early in the school year and they are still ironing out details for the year, they are starting with weaving hats and conducting a coin collection throughout October.

When asked if he had ever woven yarn before, Jack Hapke said “I have not, but I am enjoying it!” Jack went on to say, “I hope that we will be able to hand deliver the hats so we can meet some of the people who are receiving them.”

The students shared that in October they are embarking on a “Coins for Cures” fundraising effort. “We will first create a presentation and then go to each classroom, with the 7^th grade homerooms each taking half of the school. We’ll set out decorated jars and ask people to share their spare change by putting it in the jar,” said Theodore. The students plan to collect money throughout the month. “We hope to bring the money with us to St. Jude when we bring the hats,” concluded Jack.