Parish aids students

Last year, the Christian Service Committee at Ss. Anthony and Joseph parish in Herkimer helped 23 needy children sport new outfits and shoes when they returned to school.

This year, they expect to equal, if not exceed, that number.

Angie Wiliczka, service committee coordinator, said, "We were pleasantly surprised by the large number of parishioners who responded to our request."

Call for help

The committee put an inquiry in the Sunday bulletin and got 25 responses to help students at Herkimer Elementary and St. Francis de Sales School.

The group then contacted the public school nurse, who provided a list of children in need of assistance and what they required. They also got in touch with Sister Rosalie Kelley, CSJ, principal at St. Francis de Sales Regional Catholic School.

"We sent a survey to those who responded [to the bulletin], asking them what items of clothing they wanted to supply," Mrs. Wiliczka said. "We put them all together so that each child on the list would go back to school wearing a new outfit and new footwear."

Supplies

Additionally, Compassion Coalition, a group from Utica, donated backpacks filled with supplies for the children. Parishioners chipped in with spiral notebooks, glue, crayons, binders, paper, colored pencils, folders, rulers and calculators.

Last month, the committee sent out donor surveys in the weekly bulletin for the second year.

"We believe that returning to school the first day in a nice new outfit would be meaningful and beneficial to every child," Ms. Wiliczka said. "I'd like to see this effort continue to grow. Our hope is that we can reach even more children this year."

(8/24/06) [[In-content Ad]]