St. Vincent Martyr Celebrates Catholic Schools Week With Service

St. Vincent Martyr School in Madison, NJ, celebrated National Catholic Schools Week with a community service day and other opportunities to demonstrate school spirit. The events were part of the nationwide celebration of Catholic education during the week of January 28th through February 3rd. The week’s theme — “United in Faith and Community.” — highlighted the schools’ focus on faith development, academic excellence, and dedication to community service.

On Tuesday, January 30th, students spent the day working on service projects throughout the community. Our eighth-grade students visited Covenant House in Newark, alongside their peers from St. Gerard Majella School in Paterson. Two young residents whose families had abandoned them spoke to the students about the love and support they had found at Covenant House, which houses and educates homeless youth. The students assembled and donated toiletry bags to be distributed to new arrivals at Covenant House.

Seventh Graders took a trip to the Community Food Bank of NJ in Hillside. They learned how the Food Bank distributes donations to soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and feeding programs around the state. The students assisted in organizing and stocking the shelves in CFBNJ’s warehouse.

Our sixth-grade students visited the students at ECLC of New Jersey, an accredited nonprofit, educating students ages 5–21 with severe learning and/or language disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, or multiple disabilities. Groups of SVMS students visited each classroom. Our students read a kindness book to the ECLC students and then led kindness bingo. Some classes also made friendship bracelets together.

In fifth grade, the students watched a video about the services offered by Catholic Charities and the Father English Food Pantry in Paterson. The children then made heartfelt cards to accompany the Grab ‘n Go Snack Bags they assembled. These bags, filled with snacks and love for people living on the streets of NJ or temporarily misplaced in shelters, will be distributed on Valentine's Day.

Canine visitors came to SVMS on Tuesday. The Seeing Eye in Morristown enhances the independence, dignity, and self-confidence of people who are blind, through the use of specially trained dogs. For a year and a half, volunteers host puppies in their homes, providing love, care, obedience training, and social exposure to assist the puppy in becoming a future Seeing Eye® dog. Puppy raisers brought their animals to the school to meet our fourth-graders who learned more about the program and made chew toys for the puppies.

The third graders took a walk to the Madison Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The trip included a tour of the building and a demonstration of the ambulances and equipment. Formed in 1954, the Corps has responded to over 50,000 calls in the last 60 years. The students were asked to spread awareness about the need for new volunteers over the age of 18.

Our second-grade students, who will be celebrating their First Holy Communion this year, reached out to their counterparts at St. Gerard Majella School in Paterson. They assembled gift bags with prayer cards, bracelets, and rosary beads to send to the SGMS students, accompanied by handmade congratulatory cards.

First graders created cards with good wishes to be distributed to retired priests and nuns.

Our Kindergartners learned more about hunger in New Jersey through a presentation provided by Nourish NJ, which has spent more than three decades working to create lasting solutions to the problems of hunger, homelessness, and poverty. The children packed “Rise & Shine Breakfast Bags” to provide vital nutrition for local families.

Our youngest students in preschool brightened the day of faculty and school staff members by assembling and hand-delivering goody bags filled with Hershey's Kisses.

“We appreciate the support we receive from the community, and we encourage our students to give back through service projects all year,” said Principal Sr. Noreen Holly. “It’s part of our effort to provide a well-rounded education.”

In addition to completing the community service projects, the students at SVMS enjoyed a variety of activities to celebrate the school’s mission “to develop our minds, bodies, hearts, and souls, with Jesus always at our side.” The children participated in Mass and a Living Rosary prayer service. They were also treated to a BMS bike assembly about bicycle safety on Monday and ice cream sundaes on Friday. School families gathered on Sunday for the Opening Liturgy and a breakfast to kick off Catholic Schools Week, and got together on Thursday evening for a Family Pasta Night.

St. Vincent Martyr School invites prospective students and their families to apply for the few remaining seats in their preschool through 8th-grade classes for the 2024-2025 academic year.
The National Catholic Educational Association is the official sponsor of National Catholic Schools Week. During the week, nearly 6,000 Catholic schools across the country celebrated academic excellence and faith-based education.

About St. Vincent Martyr School

St. Vincent Martyr School in Madison, NJ is a co-ed Catholic school offering education to students in preschool through Grade 8. St. Vincent Martyr School has educated generations of students since its founding in 1848. It is the oldest Catholic school in the Diocese of Paterson and is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year. For more information about St. Vincent Martyr School, visit our website at https://www.svmsnj.org.