The seventh-grade class at Edmonds-based Holy Rosary School conducted five service projects during the past year to help their neighbors in need.

Holy Rosary service learning teacher Julie Gibson said the students had been studying “environmental crisis issues, immigration and the movement of people, inequality in education and the far-reaching effects of hunger and poverty. She then challenged them “to determine a need in our community or world and to create a service project to help benefit those who may need support.”

The students “enthusiastically took up the challenge,” Gibson said, creating feminine hygiene kits for women at the YWCA; collecting supplies and clothes for the migrant farm workers in Skagit Valley through Catholic Community Services (CCS); holding a coat drive for Lynnwood-based Clothes for Kids, collecting used school supplies for the Red Cross disaster relief, and funding a year of housing and schooling for an orphan in Honduras though the organization Nuestro Pequeño Hermanos (NPH). Other Holy Rosary students brought in money for that project, coming from their own home-based service projects.

Gibson then asked the students to reflect on their project, which allowed them to “think critically about their service experience,” she said.

Here are photos of the participating students and their reflections:

The Fernando Project

Our group chose to support Fernando, a boy at NPH in Honduras. Our group’s goal was surpassed greatly as we ending up raising more than $1,000 and we are so grateful to all the students for how much support they have shown. In Honduras people don’t have the money to pay for the recourses they need, so our money will help pay for the necessities Fernando needs like school, food, shelter, etc. By helping out kids at NPH we are setting them up for a better life. I just hope we will be able to support more kids in the future to help them get what they need and give them the ability to follow their dreams.
— By Gabby, Annika and Caroline

Feminine Hygiene Kits

Our group chose to help girls and women who can’t afford to buy basic feminine hygiene products and shampoo, soap, etc. Many women and girls who are living on the margins don’t have enough products to keep them clean and hygienic. Tampon and pads cost more than they should cost and some women aren’t able to afford that. This project addresses those needs.  ‘m hoping that we are able to help females feels safe and happy and that they are getting the health care and body essentials that they need. Knowing that we are helping in a small way makes me feel so happy.
— By Payton, Maddy, Darcy and Elise

CCS Migrant Farmworkers

Our group chose to support the migrant farmworkers in the Skagit Valley. Many farmworkers are coming up from Mexico and southern California. They need many of the basic necessities like food and clothing because they are moving around a lot and can’t take much with them. Their community will benefit when their basic needs are being met. We are happy to help the people who bring our food to us.

— By Jonah, Wilhelm, Evan, Madden and Kainoa

The two other service projects were a coat drive to benefit Clothes for Kids — organized by Raina, Lily, Connor and Sarah — and the used school supply drive benefiting the Red Cross, conducted by Ian, Matthews and Evan.