A month back the freshman class volunteered to wait tables at the school dinner theater performance of Beauty and the Beast. They earned tips which they donated to their class office and FYM. Afterwards, I mentioned to the FYM director a service idea I had. I wanted to collect old soccer cleats and track shoes for the young people served by our Franciscan missionaries in Jamaica (you can read about them here ).

I asked some of my students who are on the soccer team to spearhead the effort. The 5 of them did a great job! They distributed and collected boxes, went on the TV morning announcements, personally invited kids to donate their used equipment. They did more and worked even harder than I thought they would! We collected them over the month of April and it was a huge success as the pile of shoes will attest.

The kids spent a number of study halls and afternoons after school sorting and boxing the shoes.

When we were all finished we collected and shipped 27 boxes of shoes!

The kids were excited and I was so proud of them and of the Curley students who were so generous with young people that they might not ever meet. And a second thing I excited about…the FYM office doesn’t smell like old feet anymore!

peace and prayers,
friar Matt