Now in its third full year, the St. Peter’s School HOUSE program allows students in grades 7-12 to organize monthly service projects that benefit the community.
Coordinator of the program, Angie Dillon, explained that at the beginning of each school year, the students are divided into “houses,” with about 50 students per house. During that initial meet and greet, students decide what service projects they would like to host during the school year, and the houses are each assigned a month in which their service project will occur.
On Friday, Oct. 4, the house of St. Andrew (each house is named after an apostle) organized a fundraiser for the Catholic Charities food pantry and the Humane Society of Richland County (HSRC).
All St. Peter’s students were asked to donate $2 to the HSRC and give two non-perishable food items to the food pantry.
As an incentive to donate, members of the St. Andrew house, Josh Adamescu and Andrew Stein, helped organize a dodge ball tournament. In order to be eligible to participate in the tournament, students needed to provide the requested donations. “We thought it would be a fun way to encourage people to donate,” said Adamescu.
The end result: $360.09 was raised for the HSRC and 340 food items were donated to the Catholic Charities food pantry.
Looking ahead, the house of St. Bartholomew is hoping to hold a blood drive sometime in October as their service project.
In addition to serving the community, students in the HOUSE program meet weekly in their houses for a study hall. Each house has its own mentor, or teacher, who provides any academic assistance the students may need.
Dillon noted that through the HOUSE program, the students have formed tight-knit relationships with one another. “Since we’re such a small school with 225 kids, [the program] serves as a way for everyone to get to know one another. Sometimes all of them, junior high and high school students, will eat together in the lunch room,” she said.
Still to come, HOUSE program students will participate in an academic challenge competition. The students also have to decide how they would like to utilize a donation provided by the Monsignor Dunn Foundation. Each house was given a sum of $50 by the foundation to be used toward any means they believe will be most effective, said Dillon.
“Since we’re such a small school with 225 kids, [the program] serves as a way for everyone to get to know one another,” said program coordinator Angie Dillon.
