St. Michael's School
St. Michael’s School, Mahnomen, MN recently took part in the Mahnomen Community Foundation Pay-It-Forward Campaign. The campaign has three objectives: to teach youth about being community leaders and what it means to be a steward of the community; to promote service learning; and to get students to learn to speak in public and work in teams.
St. Michael’s School wrote grant requests to cover the cost of purchasing fleece tie blanket kits. Grants were received through: Wild Rice Electric Trust; Mahnomen Community Foundation; and the Mount St. Benedict Foundation to help defray expenses. Enough money was raised through these grants to purchase 60 fleece tie blanket kits to be distributed throughout the Mahnomen community.
St. Michael’s School students in 1st grade-6th grade worked together in groups to cut and tie blankets for the residents of the Mahnomen Nursing Home, Mahnomen Area Assisted Living, and the homebound from the local community. Each blanket kit was assigned to a recipient and the students prayed for that individual while they tied the blanket. One student stated, as he worked, that “Every knot is a prayer.”
After the blankets were tied, they were blessed by Fr. Dave Super at Mass with the students. The fleece prayer blankets were then distributed to the residents and homebound during the months of February and March. To complete the project, a group of students will prepare a presentation and speak to members of the Mahnomen community at a dinner on March 30, 2020.
