St. Stephen’s Mission Club packs backpacks for needy children

by Karen Keefe
Grand Island Dispatch, October 2004

It’s backpack season, a sure sign that the school year is off and running.

Students at St. Stephen’s School wanted to make sure others their own age weren’t left behind, so they packed bookbags for more than just themselves. In fact, they packed 70 of them.

Members of the school’s Mission Club worked together after school to gather and pack up needed supplies for an after-school tutoring program at the Francis Center on Ferry Avenue in Niagara Falls. The backpacks were distributed to students by Sister Betty Neumeister.

Students Helping Others

The objective is “children helping children,” explained St. Stephen’s Principal Donna Ende. “We need to reach out to those less fortunate than we are.”

About 30 St. Stephen’s students – from first to eighth grade – meet on the third Wednesday of each month to work on service projects that offer assistance and comfort to others in the local community. Ann Samplinski and Michelle Fusco are their faculty advisors.

Working together “is a vehicle for our children to be a partner in the needs of the world and those who live in it,” said Samplinski.

“It makes you feel blessed,” said Fusco.

Making a Difference

As the students describe their recently completed project, their eyes shine with pride. They speak softly, but confidently about the job of helping others.

They know their work made a difference for children who otherwise would not have had even the basic tools for class. Contributions came from the students’ families, faculty and from the kids, themselves. All the materials for the backpacks were brand new.

Some Mission Club projects involve donations that are “gently used,” according to Ende.

At a recent session, Mission Club members gathered around tables and went to work “like a production line,” said third-grader Christy Kalman.

Each table had a specialty to contribute as they worked. In went “packs of loose-leaf paper, folders, pencils and pens,” says sixth-grader Thomas Kalman. “And a lunchbox,” chimes in fifth-grader Rebecca Meyer.

Student Pride

“I gave up my favorite bookbag - because I thought it would help people - and my crayon box and my lunch box,” Rebecca says.

Her sister, Rachel, an eighth-grader, had been saving her money for a long time. “Half of it went to the school supplies. Now I’m set back, but it still made me feel good.”

Summer Alkhativ, a fourth-grader, also saved up to buy the items that filled a backpack. She earned the money by “taking out the garbage and cleaning the house.” Then there was the joy of shopping for the goodies. “My Dad took me,” Summer says.

“It’s a good way to get rid of the stuff you don’t use,” says fourth-grader Jeremy Lazatin.

When all was ready, a car was packed to the roof.

“I don’t think they believed we’d have that much stuff,” Fusco said.

Eighth-grader Meredith Stone, who pitched in even though she had a cast on her arm, said the students crammed the stuff in “and it just fit.”

A Special Group

Mission Club kids come in all sizes, but from little to big, these kids know each other and enjoy working together on their special projects. St. Stephen’s is not a large school, with a total enrollment of 219, and it enjoys a family-like atmosphere.

The Mission Club sets a special goal for each month. Previously, they collected pennies and warm socks for the “Hearts for the Homeless,” an organization that operates a mobile soup kitchen for homeless men of the Riverside area of Buffalo. For this project, the club presented a $450 check to the Rev. Paul Nogaro, pastor of St. Stephen’s Church.

Their next project will be to collect vitamins, toothbrushes and new flip-flops for more than 600 needy people in Chiapas, Mexico, who receive their only health care from a medical team coordinated by Stella Niagara in Lewiston.

Samplinski says Mission Club is not about rewards or prizes. “The reward is inside your heart and how you feel about it.”