Heelan seniors serve in Siouxland

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
October 19, 2006

Seniors from Bishop Heelan High School in Sioux City ventured out to serve the Siouxland community in a variety of ways on Oct. 12.

The seniors volunteered at several places. At St. Boniface Church a group of the seniors cleaned. Another group did yard work and planting at Trinity Heights as well as help out at the Bargain Center. At the Salvation Army, a group of about 20 seniors put care packages together. Students also helped in the thrift store and in the kitchen at the Gospel Mission. At Opportunities Unlimited, a group helped with grounds work and cleaning windows of residences.

Yet another group escorted residents at Holy Spirit Retirement Home to Mass in the center's chapel. The students were able to sing, lector and act as altar servers during the Mass. Following Mass, they took the residents back to their rooms.

"We wanted to do things to give back to the greater community, to the Catholic community," said Kathryn Fairchild, director of faith formation and campus ministry at Heelan. "I also wanted us to do a few things to respect life because it is also Respect Life Month. That is why we were at the nursing home and Opportunities Unlimited, so they could interact with more fragile members of our society."

The day before, the seniors participated in a spiritual retreat. The theme of the retreat was "God is Calling, What will be Your Answer." Fairchild noted that the retreat was to help the students "discern their gifts and talents for their vocations."

"The service work compliments their retreat because they are giving their gifts," said the campus minister. "Service is one of the four main mission components for Bishop Heelan High School. It is a tradition that they go out and give back as a class. They do other things through the year with their homeroom but this is more to unify them as a class."

According to Fairchild, the students served between two to four hours depending on the location and amount of work there was for them to do.

"I hope they gain an appreciation for everyone in our greater Siouxland community and an appreciation for those who are working so hard at the Gospel Mission or the sisters at the nursing home," said Fairchild. "I think it is good for them to interact with them. It is a Gospel value that I hope can become concrete."

Tim O'Brien noted that he was "fortunate enough" to help at St. Boniface Church and School.

"We helped a great deal," said O'Brien. "The amount of work we all did would have taken the members of the St. Boniface staff a long time but we did it very efficiently. It felt great to know that we were helping people to accomplish work that they would have struggled to do alone. By doing this service for the church, I felt very satisfied with myself and happy that the others with me got to be included in this wonderful thing we did for the people of this community."

Lindsey Miller did yard work at Trinity Heights and then helped out at the Bargain Center.

"We had a lot of fun working together," said Miller. "Being active on this service day made me proud of my school and classmates and it felt really good to give back to the community."

Shayli Meyer went with a group of her classmates to the Salvation Army. They put care packages together.

"It was an easy and fun thing to do," said Meyer. "It felt good to know that I was doing something to help the community."