ODAM Law

County’s Catholic schools unite for women in need

26th March 2009

County’s Catholic schools unite for women in need

Date: 3/26/2009

by GARY J. KUNICH 

KENOSHA NEWS

It is better to give than receive.

Or, in the case of Catholic students from around Kenosha, it is better to make, stuff in a gym bag and donate.

Students from St. Mark, Holy Rosary, St. Mary, Mount Carmel, St. Peter, and St. Therese came together Tuesday morning at St. Joseph High School to make more than 100 hand-tied blankets that will be part of a package of items donated to women in need.

“We have a group that meets once a month with representatives from the Catholic schools and parishes, with an agreement to work on joint programs together,” said J. Michael McTernan, who alerted Homeroom to the blanket drive. “We bought the fabric, and the kids cut and tied them together themselves. They’ve been working on it for a few weeks.”

Students will come together Friday to donate the hand-tied blankets and other items to the Women and Children’s Horizon.

Harvey Elementary School brings treasures from around the globe into the school for the Parent Teacher Association’s annual cultural folk fair, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

The folk fair features music, song, dance, stories, art and food from around the world.

Visitors can learn steps from Ukranian and Glencastle Irish dancers, sample different cuisine and learn children’s games from other countries.

Ethnic groups and restaurants will be on hand, and there will also be a silent auction.

The event is open to the public. Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for children.

Congrats to the Kenosha Beats, the city’s only drum line, for taking first place at two events, March 14 and 15, in Minnesota.

In the first event at North St. Paul High School, the Beats took first in the more competitive Scholastic A category, beating out the second-place team by 1.5 points.

The drum line, made up of students from Tremper, Bradford and Harborside, did it all again the second night.

In an evening show at Sartell High School they edged out the second-place team, Dassel Cokato, by less than one point.

Prudential Financial gave Bradford junior Zachary Swiatko a bronze medallion Tuesday for being named a finalist in the 2009 Prudential Spirit of the Community Award.

He also gets our Homeroom Gold Star of the Week award.

He was nominated for the honor after he came up with the idea to collect white, cotton socks for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I read a magazine article that they had no way of getting them except through family or care packages, and without them, they were getting funguses,” he said.

His goal was to collect 5,000 pair while sitting outside Wal-Mart. But after his mom helped him make signs, he was able to collect 16,000 pairs in one, eight-hour day. He worked with the Veterans of Foreign Wars to send them overseas.

His school counselor nominated him for the award.

“I didn’t really care about winning or not. I just wanted to do something,” he said. “I got a few letters back, and people really thanked me from their hearts. One of them was a hand-written letter from a colonel in the Army, and that’s good enough.”

We couldn’t say it any better, so we won’t.

Homeroom is a collection of school news from throughout county that runs Thursdays in the Kenosha News. To submit items, e-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)