Students at St. Brigid participate in many service projects throughout the year. Starting with the 2006-2007 school year, students keep a log of their service to others and reflect on the experience. They will keep these logs throughout their St. Brigid career and be able to look back on their years of service to the community when they graduate.
St. Brigid students, alumni, and PSR students help serve breakfast, lead crafts, and work as Santa's Elves at "Breakfast with Santa." The annual event raises over $2,000 for the school library.
Students have performed the following service in recent years:
Mother Seton/Sisters of Charity Project
During 2007-2008 St. Brigid School had a year-long celebration to recognize the Sesquicentennial for the school. As part of the150th birthday celebration, a project was developed to help the present-day students to know the Sisters of Charity who served St. Brigid for 126 years.
Elements of this project included: each classroom “adopted” several of the thirty-three remaining Sisters who taught or were principals at St. Brigid and sending cards/letters/notes to them throughout the year; creating a Mother Seton/Sisters of Charity curriculum for grades K-8; displaying the names of all the Sisters who taught or were principals at St. Brigid School; and purchasing a wood carved statue of Mother Seton reading to two children for the school lobby. Sisters of Charity were invited to a special Mass, luncheon and presentation by the students during Catholic Schools Week. As a special service project students made 60 lap blankets and sent them to the nursing home at the Mother House.
The Mother Seton/Sisters of Charity Project continues today. There is now an annual Sisters of Charity Day that includes Mass, lunch, a special program, and classroom visitation. Twice each year a student is awarded The Mother Seton Award to a student who exhibits qualities attributed to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of Charity and Catholic education in America. Students continue their service to the Sisters of Charity by communicating with the sisters that have been adopted by their classes. The joyful response from the sisters is overwhelming.
_________________________________________________________________
Xenia Crisis Pregnancy Center
This has been an Advent project for many years. Students collect items needed for new babies such as diapers, clothing, bottles, washcloths, and more.
St. Vincent Hotel
Students bring in 8-10 snacks plus make donations of up to $2. Every student decorates a lunch bag and fills it with snacks. When homeless men leave the hotel in the morning, they are given a snack bag so that they will have something to eat during the day. The donated money is used to buy bread and lunchmeat to make sandwiches for the homeless as well.
W.I.C. – Women, Infants, Children
Students collect crayons, colored pencils, coloring books, etc. and put them in bags. Children’s Services distributes them to children in the W.I.C. program.
Nursing Homes
Each month one of the classes at St. Brigid visits a nursing home or assisted care facility. The students sing songs, read to the residents, or just chat with them. The residents always look forward to our visits.
St. Jude Hospital
Students participate in the St. Jude Math-a-thon every other year. They get pledges from parents, neighbors, and other family members and collect money based on how many math problems they complete accurately. Students have the option of participating or not.
Leukemia/Lymphoma Society
Classes compete every other year to raise money through the project called “Pennies for Patients.” Students bring in their spare pennies, and the winning class receives lunch from Olive Garden as their reward. This is a hotly-contested event, and many thousands of dollars have been raised for leukemia/lymphoma research over the years.
Habitat for Humanity
In 2004-2005 St. Brigid Parish volunteered to work on a Habitat home in the Xenia area. The parish was asked to raise $4,500 for the project and provide volunteers for two weekends. The parish raised over $6,000 of which over $1,000 came from St. Brigid School students.
Sacrament Cards
Students at St. Brigid create greeting cards and send them to any parishioner receiving a sacrament.
Meals on Wheels
Students create colorful placemats used by the Meals-on-Wheels program in our community.
Communities
During Communities gatherings, students have worked on various projects including writing letters to soldiers, making lap quilts for Sisters of Charity in the nursing home, and creating cards for nursing home residents and shut-ins visited by Sr. Cory, Pastoral Associate at St. Brigid Parish.