Students In Montclair Collect Donations For Salvation Army

MONTCLAIR, NJ — The following news release comes courtesy of Lacordaire Academy. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site.

Students at Lacordaire Academy, a private, independent Dominican Catholic day school in Upper Montclair, recently donated thousands of items and filled over 100 backpacks with essential supplies for the Montclair Salvation Army Citadel. These donations will be distributed by the staff at the Salvation Army when they no longer have room at their shelter.

“Students worked hard on a Friday afternoon to extend a helping hand to our neighbors who have fallen on hard times,” said Nathan Houston, Lacordaire’s Religion Teacher, Campus Minister, and Rowing Team Coach.

“I know in these current times, giving is not always easy,” Mr. Houston said in a note thanking the Lacordaire community for their outpouring of donations. So much was donated that students used the surplus of supplies to create sanitation kits for the Bridges Outreach program that Lacordaire will participate in later this year.

“There will always be another backpack to be made, lunch to be handed out, shopping cart to be pulled from the river,” said Mr Houston, in reference to Lacordaire’s full schedule of service projects. In keeping with the vision of the Academy’s founders, the Sisters of St. Dominic, community service is an integral part of Lacordaire’s PK-12 curriculum.

Students gather on weekends–rain or shine–to clean debris from local parks, feed the hungry, care for animals in our local shelters, and more.

“It’s who we are,” said Megan Mannato, Lacordaire’s Head of School. And, service projects at Lacordaire don’t stop when school breaks for summer.

In August, a group of students from Lacordaire’s all-girls Upper School traveled to the Texas/Mexico border to serve at a respite shelter for migrants who were released by ICE and were in need of food, medicine, clean clothes, and help reaching their final destinations.

“It's one thing to learn about compassion in class, but it's another to actually be out there to offer a helping hand to people who have faced unimaginable hardships,” said Julia Rearden ‘26, who is a Lacordaire Sophomore and Montclair resident. “Whether it's through volunteer work or simply being there for people in my community, I want to continue spreading kindness and making a positive impact on the world.”

Lacordaire students will continue making a difference this year, emphasizing the importance of their relationships with the Montclair Salvation Army and the respite center in Texas.

“It was hard to leave [Texas] knowing how much work still needed to be done,” said Ciara Latchmann ‘24. “Although we are no longer in Texas, our plan is to collect donations for clothing, specifically baby/children clothing, since those are some of the things we kept running out of when helping families fill out clothing forms. We hope to collect as much as we can and send them to the center soon!”

“I am constantly in awe of how our students act through our mission every day,” says Megan Mannato, who traveled to Texas and volunteered alongside her students. “It is a privilege every day to witness these acts of kindness and compassion. “I am so impressed with [our students’] resilience and commitment to helping others. It was a privilege to see our community come together for the Salvation Army backpack drive, from our lower and middle students who brought in donations to our middle and upper students who prepared the bags.”

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