Category: Stewardship

Capstone Community Night

(May 12, 2023) The Class of 2023 hosted their Capstone Community Night, sharing about their Capstone Projects and advocating for local organizations. This year-long project showcases the students’ academic skills as well as their development as servant leaders. Alongside their parents and families, many representatives from their organizations attended Community Night. Click here to go to our photo album. 

SPS would like to thank the following organizations for supporting our students: Easterseals, Heart of Illinois Special Recreation Association, Blue Ridge Community Farm, Picket Fence Foundation, Sophia’s Kitchen, Women’s Care Center, Destiny Women’s Health, EP!C, The Beau Grant Foundation, Randy Simmons PND Memorial Scholarship, Buehler Home, Illinois Cancer Care Center, Almost Home Kids, Ronald McDonald House Charities, The G&g Foundation, Midwest Food Bank, Dream Center Peoria

2nd Grade Stewardship

(April 26, 2023) — The second grade classrooms are partnering with the Animal Care Club at Peoria Notre Dame High School and Foster Pet Outreach for a service project.  Representatives from both organizations came to talk to the kids (along with a few furry friends), to educate them on their mission and needs.

Students will be making cards in the classrooms that will be sent home with families who rescue an animal from Foster Pet Outreach.  As part of the project, classes also talked about raising money and donating supplies to help.  They discussed acts of service, and reminded students that they should be willing to complete a task(s) at home to earn the money that they would like to donate to the animals.

If you would like to support the 2nd grade service project, they will be accepting donations at school from May 1 – May 12.  Some items that are always needed are:  dog and cat food (dry and canned), dog and cat treats, fleece and wool blankets, cat litter, collars, leashes, gently used wire kennels and toys. In addition to sending supplies or cash donations to school, there are many other ways to make a contribution:

• Paypal
• Venmo (@Foster-PetOutreach).
• Wish Lists: Amazon Wish List or  Chewy Wish List

Thank you for supporting our service project for this very worthy organization!

“All things of creation are children of the Father and thus brothers of man. God wants us to help animals if they need help. Every creature in distress has the same right to be protected.”

– St. Francis of Assisi

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).