Youth with Joyful Hearts in Service

Teaching students to live joyfully and in service for others is a core value at SPN.  St. Philip Neri is the patron saint of joy, and students are encouraged to live within the joy of Christ while learning Christ came in service to people in the world.  This past fall, students at SPN were able to live out this value of joyful service through five different service projects.
 
As a component of a service learning exploratory class, a group of middle school students learned about the social teachings we believe in as Catholics and were tasked with planning and completing a service project. These middle school students met every Friday afternoon and completed their projects over a course of eight weeks. Abby, a fifth grader, decided to plan a coat drive to collect items for the Salvation Army. Two sixth graders and a seventh grader, Bailey, Kaleb, and Kaiden, added some fun into the toilet paper drive for the Sienna Francis House by having a class competition to build the tallest “Leaning Tower of Toilet Paper.” And two eighth graders, Bella and Carly, learned more about pro-life needs and pregnancy resources in the Omaha community to share information about Mater Filius with parishioners and community members.
 
These service projects culminated with over 100 items donated to the coat drive, over 400 rolls of toilet paper, and several hours spent spreading information about a resource to help expectant mothers. While the numbers speak for a volume of impact, the true purpose of service is learning to live in community that encourages goodness and giving to others. These students planned the service projects and encouraged participation from their peers with joyful minds and hearts.
 
Two more service projects were planned at the school and were received with great enthusiasm. The student council held a canned food drive which collected over 1,500 cans. Then, an Advent service project was led by the school principal, Mrs. Jensen, and inspired from the story book The Mitten Tree by Candace Christiansen.  A Christmas tree bare of decorations was placed in the entryway of the school. Students brought in mittens, scarves, and hats to decorate the tree during Advent. By the time school adjourned for the year, the tree was adorned with color from donations. Then, those items were donated to a local charity to be given to families during Christmas.
 
All of these service projects taught students about the joy of giving in service to others while also growing their hearts and minds in service to God.


Loading the Truck of Canned Goods for the St. Vincent De Paul Food Pantry

Kaiden Root, Kaleb Daum and Bailey Murphy with Toilet Paper Challenge Service Project..

Abby Murphy with Mitten Drive for Service Project 

Isabella Ramsgard and Carly Berkey with the Mater Filius Service Project.

Dhiadra Nelson crocheted mittens for the service project.