This week, students from Catholic schools throughout the Philadelphia area are celebrating Catholic Schools Week by participating in a variety of fun events.
This week, students from Catholic schools throughout the Philadelphia area are celebrating Catholic Schools Week by participating in a variety of fun events. On Monday, students from Our Lady of Port Richmond visited St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, where they met Archbishop Charles Chaput and auxiliary bishops John McIntyre, Michael Fitzgerald, Timothy Senior and Edward Michael Deliman. They also spent time giving back to the community by gifting food to be sent to food pantries around the city.
“They have this meeting room and everybody went down and got a colored bandana and a bracelet,” said student Paul Crawford. “The [bandanas and bracelets represented] different groups and each group did different things. One group packed food for the homeless. One group packed food for the children and the other one just did it for soup kitchens and storage places.”
“It just felt really good because you know that what you’re doing is making a difference and that it shows you that even though you’re all kids we actually can make a difference,” said student Sarah Ratka. “It was really fun.”
“The children in the school wrote letters to all the businesses and the foundations to politicians to thank them for supporting Catholic education,” said Principal Sister Mary Ripp.
On the day the Star went to visit the Our Lady of Port Richmond, the students were preparing for an assembly in which they were to dress up as vocabulary words and parade around the gymnasium — another event held in honor of Catholic Schools Week.
Ratka’s vocabulary word was “marcupial,” which is a type of animal that carries its young. She dressed up as a kangaroo. Paul Crawford’s word was “barrel,” so he brought an orange traffic barrel costume to school.
Other highlights of the assembly were Jerriko Graber, Stella Perez and Izabela Terech. Graber’s word was “determination,” so he dressed up as Carson Wentz. Perez’s word was “forest,” so she dressed up as a tree, and Terech’s word was “obsolete,” so she dressed up as a dinosaur.
The students said they enjoyed the assembly because it was a fun way to learn.
“I like Catholic school [because it] will give you opportunities [to] get scholarships for your future and you get special classes like gym, art, music and stuff like that. You can really explore what you want to do.”
