A lesson in gratitude

St. John's class makes Thanksgiving bag lunches for Napa’s homeless

By JILLIAN JONES
Register Staff Writer

This year when second-grader Sophia Lee digs into her Thanksgiving meal, she’ll have more on her mind than turkey, mashed potatoes and pie.

This year when she gathers around the dinner table with her family, her thoughts will be with those who are alone on Thanksgiving Day.

How, she asked, as she bore down her marker to the paper lunch bag on her desk Tuesday, can the homeless celebrate Thanksgiving alone and hungry?

The thought “makes me feel like I’m going to cry,” said Gage Bement, another second-grader at St. John the Baptist Catholic School, as he colored in a heart on his paper bag.

So Lee, Bement and the rest of their second-grade class at St. John’s decorated 70 bags and filled them with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Napa’s homeless to be delivered to the Hope Center.

In shifts, they gooped jelly onto sliced bread, sealed sandwiches in plastic baggies and stuffed granola bars and water bottles into carefully colored paper bags.

“All the poor people who don’t have jobs and homes, I want them to be happy,” said Lee as she slowly wrote out a message on her bag. “Be greatful. Be happy,” it read. This wasn’t a spelling lesson.

On Thanksgiving, she said, “I will think about the people smiling and praying to God that, ‘Wow, that person gave me this wonderful meal. Let me see them in heaven.’”

Her classmate Bement struggled to contain his emotions as he imagined the scene. “I bet they’re going to be so excited,” he said. “They’re going to thank God for these kids and hope that they do it again.”

With a wink, their teacher Celine Ford said, “Now you know why I teach.”

It’s important for her students to celebrate Thanksgiving with a service project, said Ford. “They have so much to be thankful for; it’s good for them to realize that not everyone is as blessed as they are.”

St. John’s Principal Nancy Jordan said she is “inspired and energized by their kind hearts. … Our students live wrapped in the arms of compassion and faith. This gives them and all the adults that support them incredible richness in character.”

“Even the youngest members of society — in this case, second-graders — can share their genuine care and compassion with those less fortunate,” she said. “For that, I am truly thankful.”

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