St Mary’s Visitation, Byron Center students collect shoes for African children
As their Advent service project, the St. Mary's Visitation School students, spearheaded by the student council, collected gently-used pairs of shoes to place on the feet of children throughout Africa. Inspired by a presentation by Barnabas Charities this past fall the students partnered with the group and collected 386 pairs of gently-used shoes. Shown above are members of the St. Mary Visitation student council.

Second graders raise money to keep people warm
Students of Mrs. Linda Fish’s second grade class, Lake Michigan Catholic Elementary, St. Joseph, focused on giving instead of receiving this Christmas by donating $137 to the Kalamazoo Diocesan Heating Fund. These students were able to earn money for the fund by doing chores throughout the advent season. Aware that baby Jesus was born in a stable on a cold winter’s night, the children hoped that their contribution would help those in their community also suffering from the lack of warmth this winter. Each child received a scarf at the end of this “Giving Warmth” project.

Ss John/Bernard names Eagle Scouts
Howard Lee Yeager IV and Gregory St. Amand recently earned the rank of Eagle Scout. Both young men are members of SS John & Bernard Parish, Benton Harbor. Howard is in his second year at Lake Michigan College, studying biology. For his Eagle project he constructed seven gardening beds for the community garden at the St. John’s Catholic Community Center. Gregory is a freshman at Western Michigan University and is in the Army ROTC program. His Eagle project was the construction of a rain garden at Upton Middle School, St. Joseph, Mich.