Cardinals Lend a Holiday Helping Hand

The tradition to help families in need at Christmas is still alive after more than twenty years at St. Charles College.

This year almost twenty-five families will have gifts to put under the tree for their children thanks to the Cards.

Homerooms pool money together in the weeks leading up to Christmas and then go shopping with the child’s pre-made list in hand.

Deacon Steve Callaghan, the school Chaplain spearheads the initiative yearly, “Each homeroom essentially adopts a child or children within a family attending one of its feeder schools and supplies gifts for the children.” To keep annonymity and respect the families privacy, Deacon Steve delivers the parcels to the parents in the days leading up to Christmas through the help of the feeder school Principals.

Principal Patty Mardero says “The initiative falls in line with the Ontario Catholic Graduate Expectation five which focuses on students becoming collaborative contributors inside of the walls of the school but also helping students beyond that in the greater community.”