21.7 C
Belize City
Friday, March 29, 2024

World Down Syndrome Day

Photo: Students and staff of Stella Maris...

BPD awards 3 officers with Women Police of the Year

Photo: (l-r) Myrna Pena, Carmella Cacho, and...

Suicide on the rise!

Photo: Iveth Quintanilla, Mental Health Coordinator by Charles...

SJC students commemorate St. John Berchmans’ Day

EducationSJC students commemorate St. John Berchmans’ Day

In line with the commemoration of the Feast day of their patron saint, Saint John Berchman’s, over 500 students of Saint John’s College in Belize City engaged in community service activities in various parts of the city today.

We met up with a group who were hard at work at the YWCA on Freetown Road. They were headed by Beatrice Robateau, a campus minister from St. John’s High School’s Campus Ministry. She told Amandala that today, November 26, is known as Saint John Berchmans’ Service Day. Robateau said, “Today is the feast day of our patron saint, John Berchmans, and his motto that he lived by was “do ordinary things extraordinarily well”, so today we are trying to live out that motto of service by doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. We have 21 classes who are taking part in the initiative; therefore we have people at 21 different sites. First, we had a prayer service this morning, and after the prayer service, we deployed the students all over the city.”

Robateau mentioned that the students were doing a number of different activities at several preschools and primary schools across the city, including clean-up campaigns and assisting with reading and artwork.

There were also classes at the Sister Cecilia Home for the Elderly, the Dorothy Menzies Child Care Center, and the Liberty Children’s Home. Two groups of students were picking up the garbage along the edges of the Philip Goldson Highway; from the roundabout adjacent to Pallotti High School up to the Brodies Supermarket at Mile 2 ½.

In terms of the community projects that SJC promotes, Ms. Robateau emphasized that this is one which she is most proud of, and asserted that the boys are sometimes reluctant to go out, but she conceded that young people tend to act in that manner at times. She pointed out though, that community service is a graduation requirement for the school. She said that since their motto is “Men and Women for Others” and “Quality Matters”, they try to have the students reflect those qualities so that they can truly become men and women who care for others.

In regards to the impact that the school hopes to instill through such community initiatives, Robateau responded, “We try to develop our students holistically – spiritually, mentally and physically. We expect that when they leave SJC, that they will be servant leaders; that they will lead by serving and by example.” She said that some of the students have commented that working with orphans or the elderly make them more patient and compassionate, and “those are the people that we want to form”, she explained.

The students carried out their activities for almost three hours, and ended a bit before midday.

Saint John Berchmans (13 March 1599 – 13 August 1621) was a Jesuit scholar, and is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. He is the patron saint of altar servers. St. John Berchmans’ Day is observed every year on November 26.

Check out our other content

World Down Syndrome Day

Suicide on the rise!

Check out other tags:

International