POCATELLO — Fifth graders and preschoolers as young as 3 years old gathered in the halls of Holy Spirit Catholic School on Wednesday to assemble blessing bags that provide basic essentials for the disadvantaged and citizenry in need.
“Every Lent season we encourage our students to bring in items for the blessing bags,” said Holy Spirit Catholic School Director of Marketing and music teacher BriAnna Ward. “We do a little mini shampoo, a lotion, washcloth and toothbrush. We have students bring various items for people in need and we put them in baskets throughout Lent.”
The young preschoolers are paired with older children in the fourth and fifth grade classes during the week leading up to Easter, which is known in many faiths as Holy Week, to assemble the Blessing Bags.
“We just have them help each other fill the bags as much as they can,” Ward said. “We try to make it pretty independent and teach the kids about service. They go down the (assembly) line and they fill up the Ziploc bags while we sing. Usually we sing a blessing. Then we invite our school priest Father Aleksander Dembowski and he comes in blesses the bags and he blesses us.”
Father Aleksander Dembowski blesses blessing bags with holy water and a prayer at Holy Spirit Catholic School in Pocatello on Wednesday.
This year the school took the blessing bags to St. Vincent DePaul but have donated to numerous other organizations during the 10 years that the program has been active.
“We like involving the kids in whatever way we can to help those that are less fortunate,” Ward said.
Holy Spirit Catholic School provides a host of service projects on a monthly basis and part of the efforts of the teachers at the school is to impart a level of understanding and compassion to the youth they instruct.
“It helps us teach empathy,” Ward said. “It helps the kids feel good about helping someone else. It helps them understand what they do have. It helps them have a more positive outlook about their lives and it helps them realize that they're blessed with a lot.”
Ward continued, “There are people out there without basic necessities, so it really gives us a chance to provide a learning experience for us to say, ‘There are people in this world that don't have these basic items and these are things that you have in your bathroom right now.’ We give service to teach empathy. We give service to model Christ-like behavior because we're a Catholic Christian School. We give service because it makes us feel good.”
During the week following Easter Sunday, Holy Spirit Catholic School will put on its first ever school wide Easter play from 10:30 to 11 a.m. on April 5 at the St. Anthony Chapel. The event is free to the public and will cover the Holy Week leading up to Jesus Christs’ crucifixion and resurrection. The play is student-led and ran with a narrator depicting the biblical events that many faiths commemorate during the week of Easter.
“It's super uplifting,” Ward said. “The kids are so humble and serious and it's just really sweet. It's open to the public and all are welcome and would feel comfortable with this play about Jesus.”
Holy Spirit Catholic School has been serving the community for over 100 years and is now actively enrolling from preschool through fifth grade. The staff at the school recommend anyone interested in attending to take a tour and experience everything they can offer.
“We welcome all faith traditions and prospective students need not be Catholic to attend our school,” Ward said. “At Holy Spirit, we are committed to serving our community while raising the next generation of kind, bright thinkers. Our mission is to inspire students to academic excellence, foster creativity and ignite our hearts with love for God and neighbor.”
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