Mount Mercy Academy’s students and staff were busy serving the community during the month of October. One of the missions of Mount Mercy Academy is compassionate service. This mission was well met in October as the school assisted at St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy, Journey’s End, Our Lady of Black Rock School, Cazenovia Park, Ronald McDonald House and Fantastic Friends.
Once again, campus minister and senior theology teacher Mary Colby is asking members of the senior class to plan and coordinate a service project. Projects are just getting underway, but already three seniors initiated service projects and the school also had five other service activities.
Freshman Kayla Pietrkiewicz volunteered to create birthday cards for the Sisters at the Mercy Center. She worked after school to get the cards started, and seniors and sophomores assisted in their theology classes. Mount Mercy sends a birthday card to the all of sisters at the Mercy Center from the Academy.
The National Honor Society spent their day off volunteering at St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy. The girls helped in the home school program, organized at the St. Luke’s Mall, and worked in the kitchen.
The juniors had their Junior Class Retreat and spent the morning volunteering at Our Lady of Black Rock, St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy and Journey’s End. At Journey’s End, several juniors spent the morning working on the Urban Farm. At St. Luke’s, juniors helped out in the home school program, sorted donations and worked in the kitchen prepping lunch. At Our Lady of Black Rock, the juniors assisted students with their educational activities.
Three seniors coordinated their service projects in October. Gina Szumigala coordinated a service event where volunteers created cards with motivation sayings for patients at a therapist’s office. Jenna Eszak led a volunteer crew in a clean-up effort at Cazenovia Park. Emily Howard led a group of seniors in helping out at the Fantastic Friends Halloween Party. Fantastic Friends is an organization that hosts events for kids and young adults with autism.
Mount Mercy is once again banding together with other Mercy institutions to support worthwhile projects. The school’s Mercy Girl Effect Leadership team shared their fundraising plan to support Laudato Tree. Laudato Tree is a collaborative effort of Mercy high schools in the United States and Ireland to contribute to the Great Green Wall, a line of trees designed to combat deforestation in Sub Saharan Africa that will extend from Senegal to Djibouti.
A team of freshmen and sophomore volunteers provided a Halloween-themed dinner for guests staying at the Ronald McDonald House. Dinner was a success as the group created Halloween Mini PIzzas, Monster Meatball Sliders, a Skeleton Veggie Tray, and Silly Monster Apple Bites.
Another day, a group of freshmen and sophomores spent the afternoon at the Mercy Center decorating pumpkins with the sisters. They helped the sisters decorate their doors with the completed pumpkins.
The Mount Mercy community continues to follow Catherine McAuley’s vision of compassionate service and affirming the dignity and uniqueness of individuals.
