Serving Those in Need This Thanksgiving Season

Christian Service has long been an essential component of a Malvern Prep education. At this time of year in particular, the Malvern community comes together to help those in need, raising money for organizations that help people with cancer or AIDS, collecting canned goods for local food banks and bringing meals and clothing to people living at an area homeless shelter.

Earlier this month, Malvern distributed checks for $4,500 to each of four organizations that support families struggling to fight cancer and AIDS. Representatives from Bringing Hope Home, the Cancer Support Community, Evanfest and Siloam Ministries received the checks at a chapel service on November 3. The money was raised through the School’s annual C.A.R.E.S. five-mile walk through the Malvern Borough. C.A.R.E.S. stands for Cancer and AIDS Reaches Everyone Somehow, and was created by Malvern Christian Service Director Larry Legner 15 years ago. More than 350 people took part in the walk, which was held on October 5.

This month, the School collected nearly 6,000 cans of food, which were given to St. Patrick Church in Malvern and Mother Katharine Drexel Food Cupboard in Chester.

Finally, on November 25 a group of Malvern seniors and teachers will travel to Joseph’s House in Camden, N.J., to serve a hot meal to 100 homeless men and women. The School has been collecting warm clothing (as well as a lot of donated Halloween candy!) to give out at the shelter. The students will be making a spaghetti dinner at Malvern to take with them.

Malvern is proud of its extensive service program, which also includes three full weekends of service each fall and a two-week international service trip for rising seniors each summer, among other initiatives. Malvern is committed to the Augustinian ideal of service, in which the community members seek to work alongside those in need and get to know them as people.

Sister Bernadette Kinniry of Siloam explained this ideal when she addressed then Malvern students at the C.A.R.E.S. Walk check presentations. “My work at Siloam has helped me see all people, even and especially those afflicted with AIDS or other diseases, as precious, precious human beings,” she said.

Malvern’s Christian Service Program is one small way that the School hopes to instill this hopeful message in its students and entire community.