On Jan. 31, Madison’s St. Vincent Martyr School took part in its annual Day of Service.
The school has been holding the event on Tuesdays of Catholic Schools Week for about 10 years. Each day of the week this year celebrated a different facet of the 2023 Catholic Schools Week theme of “Faith, Faculty, Students, Community, and Service.”
As the middle school continued to grow in 2012 and 2013, the parents were very active in the school, and the students were anxious to do more for Catholic Schools Week.
“We decided Tuesday would be community day,” said Mary Beth Flanagan, the organizer of the Day of Service, as she recalled the earlier days. “Back then, every grade in the school went out either into the local community or further away — Newark, Paterson, Hillside — and then used that day to serve others.”
Msgr. George Hundt, the pastor of St. Vincent Martyr Parish, said, “I think, first of all, what we are trying to do here at our school is to grow disciples. It is a beautiful opportunity to have children have a real-life experience of what it means to be a disciple set to serve. It helps in their understanding of how to be in relationships. I think it is great for the kids to be able to see that there are folks that are not too far away who need our help. We need to be reaching out to them.”
2023 is the first year since the COVID-19 pandemic that such community activities resumed. As examples of what acts of service were performed this year, the PreK3 & PreK4 students made rosary beads with pre-packed kits assembled by committee members; fourth-graders listened to a guest speaker from nourish.NJ soup kitchen and food pantry of Morristown, and held a weeklong collection drive for hats, gloves, scarves, and hand and foot warmers; the seventh-grade students, teachers, and parent chaperones went to the Community Foodbank of New Jersey in Hillside where students sorted and organized the food pantry; and the eighth grade with their teachers and chaperones headed to Newark’s Covenant House for a full day program at their Crisis Center to learn about the Homeless Youth Shelter.
Flanagan said of the schoolwide event, “My goal is to just plant that seed in their growing minds about the needs in the world around them, so as they get older, they can help out in their own communities and serve others.”
St. Vincent the Martyr Principal Sister Noreen Holly added, “And that’s prayer. I always wish that we were all sisters and brothers. For me, it is that the kids see how blessed they are and how they can bring blessings to others.”
She added, “Msgr. George is very immersed in this. He is like the pied piper of service, and he teaches our eighth grade. For him to be able to be with them at Covenant House brings life to his lesson.”
St. Vincent Martyr School has several more upcoming projects, including going to Pine Acres Nursing Home in Madison to play BINGO with the residents, and the entire school will be cleaning the church and school campus areas one day in advance of the townwide “May Day in Madison” clean-up.