Community Update

“Looms of Love”

When the
students in Mrs. Carangelo’s Second Grade class at St. Rose of Lima Academy, began to study about the
beautiful country of the Philippines in September, they had no idea that just a
few months later the country would suffer such hardship and tragedy following
Typhoon Haiyan.  The children began
praying and even wrote a prayer to St. Rose of Lima, the Patron Saint of the
Philippines on their behalf. This prayer was made into a prayer card so each
student could take one home and pray with their families as well.  They still wondered what else they could do
to help.

Then the
idea came to them!  The children began
making “Rainbow Loom” bracelets in the colors of the flag of the
Philippines.  The idea was to make as
many bracelets as possible and then sell them to our school community for $1.00
each.  Students voluntarily gave up
recess for two weeks to create these “Looms of Love” bracelets.  The classroom was filled with energy and
excitement as bracelet after bracelet was created by so many loving little
hands.  Each bracelet was then bagged
along with the St. Rose of Lima prayer card and the sale began!!

As the Holy
Spirit was truly present in our classroom, the bracelets began selling faster
than we could have ever imagined!  A true
community effort began as parents/students and teachers all worked
together.  Bracelets were sold within our
school, through outside sales and donations, and at the St. Rose Basketball
Thanksgiving Tournament.  Through the
effort of many parent and student volunteers, the children were able to sell
many Bracelet/Prayer Bags and the response by visiting schools was
incredible.  This Home/School connection
shows that when good people work together, wonderful things can be
achieved!  Through this amazing spirit of
cooperation, the children have raised over $1400 with more donations still
coming in.  Wow!  The money will be sent to the UNICEF
Philippines Relief Effort.

This
wonderful project integrated all areas of the curriculum: Map Skills/Culture in
Social Studies, Writing in Language Arts, Counting Money in Math, Weather and
Natural Disasters in Science and most importantly, in Religion, understanding
that our faith teaches us that Jesus would want us to help those in need. As
one student so beautifully put it, “We are like the Good Samaritan!” 

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