St. Francis of Assisi School
For the students at St. Francis of Assisi in Lumberton, NM, this holiday season was filled with most of the usual cheer and bustle. From our Halloween Carnival and pumpkin carving contest to beginning practice for our annual Christmas pageant, we have been in the holiday spirit. St. Francis of Assisi School, with only 41 students, collected over 500 pounds of food to donate to food banks before Thanksgiving! This project was driven by the 7th and 8th grade class, as they brainstormed how to put into practice our Virtue of the Month, Generosity. A local musician has been working with our 5th-8th grades, teaching them guitar, and they will have their first performance at the Christmas pageant! Our students rode the Christmas Train, hosted by the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, and got to sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Joy to the World” at the top of Cumbres Pass. Saint Lucia visited our classrooms, bringing hot chocolate and cookies to all the classes on her feast day.
What feels like our greatest accomplishment this year though, is a partnership we have developed with Casa Hogar Bethel, an orphanage and home for children in Ciudad Juarez. They have almost the same number of children as our school, and so we were able to assign each student a pen pal at Bethel, and each child made a blanket for their pen pal. 39 blankets were collected and taken to Bethel, all of them quilted or handcrafted with the help of family members and friends.
Since our school began our Refugee Committee, which helped resettle two refugee families in our area, we have tried to find opportunities to give to the world around us, and to find ways to share our resources with the greater world, not just with our small community. We are so proud of our students for being people who are seeking to find pockets of the world in need, and to use what they have to provide for those areas!
