Junior Stewards

Junior Stewards Club

The Junior Stewardship Club (JSC) is unique among Catholic grammar schools. In fact, it was created at Our Lady of the Ridge School in 2012 by three parents who believed in the importance of teaching our children about stewardship.

The club’s mission is to be a vehicle for our children to embark on a stewardship way of life by opening their hearts and responding to the needs of the community by giving of their time and talent.

The JSC is for children in grades 4-8. Meetings are held monthly (Wednesdays) directly after school, usually until 4 p.m., during the school year in Room 17. In addition to meetings, our acts of kindness will occasionally involve us participating in activities on weekends both on and off school grounds. As representatives of our school and community, responsible and respectful behavior is expected of the young ladies and gentlemen at all activities as well as active participation in our efforts to ensure that this is a learning, giving experience for those involved.

Not only has the JSC been able to return treasure to our school and parish through fundraising events each year, but several OLOR graduates have reported obtaining high school scholarships because of their membership in the club.

We’ve been very busy since last September. Here’s what the children of the club have been up to this 2016/2017 school year:

• JSC hosts a Movie Night at least once a year.
• The children decorated Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas placemats for use by the special needs adults at Park Lawn, a local non-profit organization that offers a variety of programs and services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
• The club collected, boxed, and shipped 82 boxes of gently used clothing and accessories to Schoola, an organization that resells the items and returns a profit to OLOR.
• The children stuffed 50 pairs of socks with basic hygiene necessities which were given to our PADS guests at Christmastime.
• This holiday season, the children of the Junior Stewardship Club chose to collect items for the Chicago division of Stand Up for Kids through our parish’s Christmas Giving Tree donation program. An organization close to our hearts, the volunteers of this national non-profit agency walk our city streets to find, stabilize, and help homeless and street kids improve their lives. They provide access to medical professionals, nutrition, education, employment, and housing. The program works by parishioners picking an ornament off of the Giving Tree and purchasing the desired items for the specified charity. Your kind-hearted support for this worthy charity helps their mission to end the cycle of youth homelessness throughout the United States. Thank you for your generosity of 10 bags full of clothing, socks, and personal items. More information about Stand Up for Kids can be found at www.standupforkids.org.
• We made our annual holiday visit to Sunrise Assisted Living of Palos Park in December to share our time and friendship, sing Christmas carols, and play bingo with the residents. We had so much fun, we were asked to visit more often!
• We continued with our second annual collection of candy and homemade cards to be shipped to our Southside soldiers overseas this month (January) through the generous assistance of the Oak Lawn Park District. We collected a total of $365 in monetary donations and postage stamps, approximately 30 pounds of candy, and a box overflowing with other generously donated items.
• Abbey of the Stand Up for Kids organization (mentioned above) will be a guest speaker at the January 25 JSC meeting.

The Junior Stewardship Club would like to thank the Our Lady of the Ridge Parish and School for its generous support and contributions to our efforts over the years. May God bless each of you.