The recent tragedy in Santa Rosa brought out the very best in St. Bonaventure Catholic School students. As a community, the primary mission of the school is to partner with parents to provide a Christ-centered environment where the students can grow in their faith and become active Christ-centered Catholics. St. Bonaventure’s school-wide monthly Jesus Jean Days – a day that focuses on Catholic social-teaching themes – provided an ideal opportunity for students to actively live their faith by supporting St. Rose School in Santa Rosa. St. Rose School had several classrooms destroyed by the recent wildfires that devastated their surrounding communities.
St. Bonaventure Catholic School reached out to the principal of St. Rose School and offered to help, not only through daily prayer, but with a monetary donation. St. Bonaventure eagerly embraced the partnership and opportunity to actively live out their faith. In October, students went above and beyond and challenged each other to give more than the requested donation of $1.00 in order to wear jeans to school. A typical “Jesus Jean Day” brings in $300 in donations for a designated charity. Students generously donated over a $1,000 to support this heartfelt cause.
In addition to the money raised through “Jesus Jean Day” the first-grade students decided to spearhead a book drive for St. Rose School for their class service project. Mrs. Denise Grant, the first-grade teacher, worked closely with the school librarian Mrs. Kathi Vogel to coordinate a school-wide book drive with their yearly Scholastic Book Fair that was being held in early November. Containers were placed in every classroom and the school office to encourage donations that would go toward the purchase of books that the school lost in the fire.
At the conclusion of the Scholastic Book Fair the donations from the St. Bonaventure School community again exceeded $1,000. Scholastic Books offered to match the donation to the All for Books Program to support this worthy cause. The total monetary gift to St. Rose School, through the generous partnership with Scholastic Books, totaled $2,162.
The students truly demonstrated their lived faith as active Christ-Centered Catholics at St. Bonaventure Catholic School – It is always a great day to be a saint!