Students participate in several different outreach efforts, including: kindergartners coloring place mats for local nursing home residents, 2nd graders making birthday cards for elderly shut-ins through Little Brothers, Friends of the Elderly, 4th graders baking and decorating Christmas cookies for a local soup kitchen, and 7th graders packing lunches for the homeless through the Lincoln Park Community Shelter.

In addition to these grade sponsored activities, the entire parish participates in volunteer trips to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, food drives, coat drives, toy drives, Giving Tree gifts for children in need, and coin collections for everything from UNICEF, Operation Rice Bowl and the Women's Center.

Other projects include:

Bellarmine Press
Our school newspaper, Bellarmine Press, provides a way for students to voice their opinions and explore their interests. In addition to fostering a sense of community and school pride, it functions as a natural extension of our Language Arts program, giving students a way to build their skills as writers and communicators. It also provides some real-world experience in project management, meeting deadlines, and teamwork.

Giving Tree

Each Advent, our parish places a Giving Tree in the vestibule. The tradition of the Giving Tree is to provide warm items for people in need in our parish and in the community. It also has ornaments with the names of children from our Sharing Parish, Ascention/St. Susanna in Harvey. People are encouraged to bring in a warm item of clothing to place under the tree, or to take an ornament and purchase something for a specific child. The children in our school have really enjoyed the Giving Tree through the years. One year, our First Communion Candidates made fleece hats and scarves to place under the tree. The Girl Scout troops always take ornaments and take a day to shop together for the children they have selected. Even our 7th and 8th graders take names and purchase things for individual children as well. "My child last year just listed that they wanted a blanket," one 7th grader mentioned, "I thought that must be hard to be 5 years old and need a blanket. I bought her a really warm pink one, and some toys too." This is a wonderful tradition for our parish and school. It helps keep the focus of Christmas on how we are called to be a light of Christ in the world.

Learn more: For more information and to schedule a visit, please call 773-725-5133 or email our Principal, Carrie Mijal.