All Saints P.A. Day of Service, Friday, April 28

Friday, April 28 was designated as a day for faith development, for half the day for All Saints Catholic Secondary School secondary staff. A staff member approached Ms. Colterman-Fox and said, “wouldn’t it be great that, in addition to talking about faith, we actually did something,” to which she replied, “great idea!” Soon after, Ms. Colterman-Fox started making plans for a Day of Service.

On this P.A. Day, staff members volunteered at Durham Outlook for the Needy (formerly St. Vincent’s Kitchen) in Oshawa, Simcoe Hall Settlement House Foodbank in Oshawa, The Refuge Youth Centre for youth experiencing homelessness in Oshawa, and Joanne’s House, shelter for youth in Ajax. 

As Pope Francis so elegantly wrote in Laudate Si, the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth are one. With this in mind a large number of staff volunteered to do an environmental cleanup at Heber Downs Conversation Park in Whitby.

As the Catholic Social Teaching informs us, charity, and justice are the two hands of social change of helping to make God’s dream for humanity and our planet a reality.  With this in mind, several staff attended two workshops at the school. One was with Development and Peace, a Canadian wide Catholic organization for development in the global south. The other was Canadian Jesuits International who also have a mandate and mission to love and to serve by working with people struggling for social justice and dignity in the world. Both these organizations respond in solidarity through awareness-raising and advocacy in Canada and supporting partnerships in the global south. The presentations were excellent with lots of resources for teachers. Plans are being made for Catholic youth in Durham region to attend a Canada-wide symposium in Ottawa in November, with the focus on Education for Girls, particularly in the global south.

The staff unanimously agreed that the Day of Service was a great success, and they suggested we do this more often in the future.

Special thanks to Ms. Colterman-Fox, Chaplain at All Saints Catholic Secondary School, for sharing this story and initiative.