Happy Turkey Day!
St. Raymond’s Elementary School reached out to help victims of Hurricane Sandy and those in need on Thanksgiving.
A food drive helped raise money and collect food for 50 turkey dinners with all the fixings, said Arelene Alegre Chin, director of development at the school.
It was one of many food drives that the church and three parish schools hold every year.
Some 50 gift boxes were assembled from food collected by students. The food items were collected from different grades and brought to the school’s auditorium for a Thanksgiving Mass where they were blessed by Msgr. John Graham, on Monday, Nov. 19.
“Those in need were able to get a turkey and the fixings that come from a full Thanksgiving meal,” said Alegre Chin.
Each of the classes were assigned for a specific item, she said, such as the sixth grade collecting turkey stuffing while the fifth grade brought in canned juices.
The food items were then combined and boxed in a fashion that resembled an assembly line, she said.
A notice in the parish bulletin on Sunday, Nov. 4 asked families who were in need on Thanksgiving to fill out a brief form asking for a meal.
After the mass of Thanksgiving on Sunday, Nov. 19, the boxes were brought by truck to a convent at St. Raymond, where they were later picked up by families.
St. Raymond Elementary School is the parish school of St. Raymond’s Parish and offers full academic programs from Grades K-8 and full day Pre-K-through 3 and Pre-K-through 4.
The school offers many extra-curricular activities, sports and advanced level math and science for high-achieving students.
For more information, call (718) 597-3232 or visit the school website: www.straymondelementary.org.
Patrick Rocchio can be reach via e-mail at procchio@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3393
