Florida Catholic | Lessons Beyond The Classroom

Lessons beyond the classroom

St. Francis Xavier students learn to serve others through mission work at Community Cooperative Ministries and Soup Kitchen.

BOB REDDY | FLORIDA CATHOLIC VENICE BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 05.09.08

Abby Lavender (right) and Tia Gaydash, eighth grade students at St. Francis Xavier School in Fort Myers, help one of the pre-school children in the daycare center at the Community Cooperative Ministries and Soup Kitchen in Fort Myers. The students were doing real-life mission work as part of their social justice class.
BOB REDDY | FC

FORT MYERS | Lael Hernandez, Tia Gaydash and Abby Lavender recently learned some valuable lessons outside of the classroom.

They were three of more than a dozen St. Francis Xavier School eighth-graders who took part in special mission work at the Community Cooperative Ministries and Soup Kitchen April 15.

Some of the students worked in the day-care center and others worked in the soup kitchen. They each wore St. Francis Xavier T-shirts that said, “Be Like Christ.”

No matter where the students worked, that message followed and inspired them, as their work helped them learn that they can make a difference in the lives of people even in a few short hours.

“We are serving others instead of ourselves,” said Lael, who worked in the day-care center. “That is what Jesus and the apostles did.”

Lael, Tia and Abby each helped 3- and 4-year-olds make snacks, play games and read.

Four eighth grade students at St. Francis Xavier School in Fort Myers, prepare food at the Community Cooperative Ministries and Soup Kitchen in Fort Myers.

BOB REDDY | FC
Four eighth grade students at St. Francis Xavier School in Fort Myers, prepare food at the Community Cooperative Ministries and Soup Kitchen in Fort Myers.

Other students helped with older children doing reading, singing and dancing, while still others helped prepare food for 600 people who come to the soup kitchen daily or receive food from the Meals-on-Wheels program.

The students previously learned about poverty and homelessness in the classroom from their social justice teacher Karen Galloway.

“This is putting a face on what they are learning in their curriculum,” Galloway said. “It is important that they make the connection with the real world.” That real world includes caring for the children of poor families or preparing food for hundreds of people each day.

The ministries rely on volunteers each day to meet their goal of helping the needy in Fort Myers, said Judy Nedeau, director of volunteer services for the ministries.

Nedeau spoke to the students earlier in the school year to describe the profound need for people to volunteer to help those who are less fortunate.

The parents of the children at the day-care center are the working poor and without the volunteers, the day care would not exist and parents would be unable to work.

Galloway said she believes the mission work will have a lasting impact on each student and perhaps some of them will become volunteers during the summer.

“They sometimes complain before they come to do this, but afterward they are so excited about what more they can do to help,” she said.

In addition to working at the ministries, there were students working on a Habitat for Humanity house and at ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization), an interdenominational Christian organization, on a demonstration farm in North Fort Myers that helps agricultural workers be more effective around the world. The mission work took place on two separate days to allow all of the eighth-graders a chance to participate.

Lael, Tia and Abby each agreed that their time at the day care was better than being in a classroom and did make them believe they can make a difference, just as Jesus did.

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