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Good Shepherd School will comfort critically ill children with Catholic Schools Week project

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Bishop Koenig visits Good Shepherd School students during class on Jan. 15, 2025. Photo/Don Blake

PERRYVILLE, Md. – An annual fund is designed to bring in much-needed money for a school, but in Perryville, Md., students at Good Shepherd Catholic School are using some of their proceeds to help others during Catholic Schools Week.

Children in all but the youngest grades will be making blankets for Project Linus, a national initiative that provides comfort blankets for critically ill young people. The school has paired its annual fund with a program called “I Give Catholic,” which provides the students with “a powerful lesson in generosity,” principal Marie-Pier Ingraham told parishioners in December. “Through your support, our students learn not only the importance of giving but the joy that comes from helping others.”

Bishop Koenig and superintendent of Catholic schools Lou De Angelo recently visited Good Shepherd, where the seventh- and eighth-graders explained a bit about the service project. In an interview, eighth-grader Lillian Boyd explained how the school settled on Project Linus as their beneficiary.

“We chose it because we wanted to help the community. We thought it would be a good act that we could do for little kids as well,” she said. “This one was more hands on.”

Ingraham said each of the grades submitted a charity for consideration, and she made the final decision. Many were traditional charities, but, as Ingraham explained, Project Linus will allow the students to do more than raise money and hand over a check.

“It’s a little bit more tangible for them as a learning experience. It’s just something different,” she said.

Lillian’s classmate, Emily Borusiewicz, is ready to get to work on the blankets. She hasn’t made them before, but she’s ready to get to work.

“I’m excited to do it,” she said. “We’ve done felt projects before.”

The blankets will be made in different sizes for hospitalized children up to age 18, Ingraham explained. One side of the blanket will have a print, and the other side will be a solid color. The fabric will be cut along the sides so the two pieces can be tied together. None of the children will be wielding a sewing needle for this project.

Lillian said community service is part of the fabric, if you will, at Good Shepherd. Each student is required to perform 10 hours of community service each trimester. One of the ways they serve the community is with the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul Society, which provides assistance to those who need food.

Every other week, students are dispatched to help unload a truck containing goods for the society, Ingraham said. The children, she added, are always excited to help out, and for the right reasons.

“It’s not about getting something in return. It’s what we should be doing,” she said. “That’s what Jesus would want us to do.”

“We do a lot of service projects,” Emily said.

“Doing charity is fun because you get to help the community,” Lillian added.

It will be a way for the school to strengthen its own community, which, Emily said, is already tight.

“Since the classes are small, the teachers can focus on each student individually if they need help. Everyone knows each other, so it makes it easy to communicate and get around. And everyone is willing to help each other,” she said.

As of mid-January, Ingraham was not sure where the blankets would end up. She was going to call some local hospitals to see if any participated with Project Linus or would be interested in receiving the blankets.