Laurie+ recently accepted an invitation from Rockwood School District to serve on their Strategic Plan Committee, a commitment of one year to support the creation of a 5 year plan for Rockwood. You might ask, Why?
Clearly, supporting the work of our local school district aligns with the work of a community church–in general. But unless we connect some dots, it might not be obvious that serving in this way specifically fits within what we at St. Francis’ claim as our purpose. Our parish names our Divine Purpose as: “We believe that God loves all people, and that love compels us to worship and to serve as Jesus did. We express this in the short form LOVE. WORSHIP. SERVE.”
That “serve” part can be tricky, because it can mean a lot of different things. To strengthen our understanding of HOW we serve, last November, our Service and Justice Ministry team clarified their principles, and then named two focus areas as pillars of our service and justice work: Education and Hunger.
Almost all of our service work, then, fits somewhere within the focus areas. Our focus on education has undergirded these and other endeavors over the last year:
- Snack drive to provide snacks for Eureka Elementary students who would otherwise go without;
- The appointment of parishioner Anna Mackey as missioner to Eureka Elementary School (and the Arbors neighborhood), to build our relationship with the staff, teachers and students in our neighborhood;
- Last summer’s backpack and school supply drive supporting students in the Meramec Valley District, as seen in our newsletter, as well as the donation of hats, scarves and sweaters made by our Crafters;
- The co-hosting in our building of a Red Cross Blood Drive with the Eureka Elementary PTO;
- Laurie+’s participation in the Rockwood Dignity and Belonging Community Cohort in November;
- Financial support to local families with school children for grocery funds last summer from our discretionary fund;
- The initiation of the Kathleen McDonald Scholarship Fund, to support the post-high school education of a student impacted by homelessness;
- Our February Trivia Night, the proceeds of which supported the Scholarship Fund; and
- The awarding of the Scholarship a few weeks ago at the Pacific High School award ceremony, as featured in the diocesan newsletter.
Read more about our Service + Justice Principles and our focus areas >>
If you are interested in learning about Rockwood’s Strategic Plan process or in applying to serve on the committee, read more here.