ROANOKE, Va. – All week long, students and staff at Roanoke Catholic School have been participating in activities that give back to the community.
On Monday, the upper-level classes made blessing bags for the Rescue Mission and the RAM House. The lower-level classes made trail mix bags for the VA Hospital.
On Tuesday morning, the entire school gathered to make “thank you” signs for health care workers. Each grade level was assigned different organizations to thank. These included Carilion Community Hospital, Lewis Gale Hospital, AFC Urgent Care, Walgreens, and CVS.
Students partnered up with their prayer buddies to decorate their sign and write thank you messages.
“They do a lot of great work for us and our community, so I think it is time for us to give back to our community,” said Cole Winebarger, a 9th grader at Roanoke Catholic.
“I really hope that we are just able to show the folks in our community that are working so hard that we see them, that we support them, that we are praying for them and that we are so appreciative of all the work that they are doing,” said Ellen Vanden Euykel, a high school theology teacher and religion coordinator.
The signs the students made will be put up around the community at the different sites next week.
On Thursday, there will be a career and technical education fair. Students will get the chance to learn about the different paths they can take and where that career can take them.
“We are going to be talking to Father Anthony about what made him decide to become a priest, which is going to be really neat and we are also going to have a career fair for the middle and high school students so they can learn about various different careers that they might be interested in going into one day,” said Vanden Euykel.
The career fair will also be open to parents, alumni, and the public from 1 to 2 p.m.
This is another way for the school to give back to the community and help those who might be seeking employment.