By EmmaLee Italia | Correspondent
What began as the Supplies for Scholars program in August has transformed into something more, and now, thanks to the youth group of St. Robert Bellarmine Parish, Freehold, the winter season will be a bit more comfortable for schoolchildren in need.
Jeanne Marinello, parish youth group coordinator, had helped the group begin collecting school supplies for the Freehold Township and Freehold Borough school systems for the upcoming school year in August. Parishioners and school families contributed the much-needed supplies – but then another opportunity presented itself.
“We had a gift basket auction for our parish picnic in September, and several stores donated clothing items for the baskets that we couldn’t really use,” Marinello explained. “The clothing donations really took us by surprise.”
Mall stores Uniqlo and Finish Line contributed several baskets of clothing to the parish, she said. “So the kids and I thought, ‘what can we do with all this?’”
In talks with Dr. Rocco G. Tomazic, Freehold District school superintendent, Marinello discovered that many children in the area were coming to school in, as Tomazic put it, “beyond hand-me-down” clothing – shoes that were too small, coats too thin for the harsher weather. Their needs clearly went beyond pencils and backpacks. Suddenly the youth group had its answer: The clothing would be donated to the students in need.
“When I told [Tomazic] about the donation we had, he jumped at the chance,” Marinello said.
She recalled how, as a substitute teacher in the Freehold Township schools, she would witness teachers going into their own pockets to provide for their students.
“We knew that the school systems had teachers and administrators astute enough to assess the students’ needs,” she explained, noting that their awareness would help the clothing donations to go to where they were most needed.
Tomazic relayed his appreciation to George Schnurr, Freehold Borough councilman, who in turn sent a letter of thanks to the parish.
“I wanted to relay how important the efforts of the youth group are in helping these children,” Schnurr’s letter said. “It goes beyond the clothing and footwear. It tells these children that people value them as human beings.”
Tomazic had spoken to Schnurr during a recent meeting, recalling a young boy who received new sneakers through the youth group donations. “His eyes lit up as he had never had anything new or like-new before,” Tomazic told him.
In his letter, Schnurr extolled the values being taught in the St. Robert Bellarmine youth group, saying how the actions of the group said a lot about the parish as a whole.
“These children know, at a very young age, that community involvement is the best gift,” Schnurr wrote. “These children know the ‘good feeling’ you get inside when you know you are making a difference. To the St. Robert’s youth group – thank you for making that difference.”
Lexi Santitoro, 16, has been instrumental in bringing service ideas to the forefront since she was elected parish youth group community service chairperson in the summer.
“From the time she got that position in June, she hit the ground running, looking for ways for our youth group to help different organizations,” said Marinello. “This is something we’re going to do now, going forward, at the beginning of each school year.”
Santitoro came up with the name Supplies for Scholars, she said, because “the schools in our area are all teaching us to strive in school, so that made me think of ‘scholars.’”
She had attended school with many students in the Freehold Borough whose needs were obvious.
“Some of the people [there] aren’t as fortunate – they struggle and need help,” she said.
The project has served to boost the youth group’s enthusiasm for further philanthropy, too.
“I think our youth group needs to do more service projects, and I’m excited to help our community,” Santitoro continued. “Every August, this should be an ongoing event; we’re going to ask the parish community and local businesses again [to contribute]. I think it’s the right thing to do.”
Youth group vice president Daphne Lombardi called the project “a huge success. After the first week, we had buckets full of supplies and clothes in the parish hall.”
While she had observed a few students in her high school who she thought could benefit from donations, Lombardi and her peers had been unaware of just how prevalent the need was in the grade schools.
“I think that’s what made [the project] so important,” she said. “This opened our eyes to the community needs. We’d like to branch out next year.”
Other service projects the St. Robert Bellarmine youth group has taken on, Lombardi elaborated, include bringing supplies to homeless men in winter, wrapping Thanksgiving dinners, adopting a family at Christmastime, and a large Christmas market to help fundraise for all their efforts.
Marinello praised the youth and their interest in helping children in their own backyard.
“You don’t realize behind closed doors what people are going through individually … you thank God for the blessings you have and are grateful for them, because you hear the stories of these poor people,” Marinello said. “This project just happened – it came into our lap, and we ran with it. I couldn’t be prouder of them.”