Each year, the Environmental Concerns Committee recycles a wide variety of things during our Lenten fish fries. Besides cardboard, we recycle aluminum cans, all plastic, large food tins, aluminum baking pans, pull tabs, and shrink wrap. The results from the last 2 Lenten fish fries are shown to the right.

                                                       2024        2025

• aluminum cans (bags)                15              15

• plastic (bags)                                 8               6

• large tin cans                             180           222

• Aluminum baking pans           329           348

• pull tabs (bags)                              5               9

• shrink wrap                                  -              77

Students in grades 3 through 8 were asked "how will you care for our common home?" They then wrote on a sticky note what they will do. Those sticky notes were placed on a banner in the cafeteria during the week. Topics during the week included: Our Climate, Our Air, Our Water, Our Consumption, and Our Shared Future. At the end of the week,  students were asked to write a thank you note to Pope Francis for his love of and leadership in helping our environment. Those thank you notes were sent to the Vatican.

The Vatican replied: "Yes, we received the package and we handed it over (to) Pope Francis. He was very happy to see the letters and we as well. That's exactly the reason why we are making this effort. Thank you very much for such an initiative!"  Wow!!!

To help celebrate “Care for Our Common Home Week,” 2024, students in grades Junior kindergarten to 4th grade created “Earth Flowers.” It was designed to help students become more aware of the earth and its importance to our lives. The flower is made up of reuseable and recyclable materials. The plastic tubes are actually candle cannisters that were cleaned out from the candles in our church. The yellow petals are emblematic of the sun’s life-giving rays. Both hemispheres are present to remind students that we are all on this planet together. And, of course, the theme, “Care for Our Common Home” runs down the middle of the base signifying the need to always care for our earth, home to us all.

Students took their candles home to share with their families. Placed in a prominent area, the flowers are a constant reminder to love the earth, one another, and the Lord.

In conjunction with the school's Care for Our Common Home Week," the parish celebrated "Our Common Home Weekend 2024," designed to help bring awareness to the need for protecting and preserving our environment.

The Environmental Concerns Committee passed out copies of Pope Francis' "Our common home" guidebooks along with Environmental Ernie book marks, which contained the QR code for our web site. We also gave away vases made from cleaned out church candles. 

For the first time, the ECC collected and recycled Styrofoam after Christmas 2024. 

We collected 84 pieces of Styrofoam in various sizes. It was a good beginning to what we hope will be a holiday tradition.

Beginning during the Christmas season in 2023, we began collecting and recycling holiday lights that were broken, didn't work, or were no longer wanted.

During the 2023 Christmas season we collected 10 large leaf bags 2/3rds full of old holiday lights. During the 2024 Christmas season we collected and recycled 12 large leaf bags 2/3rds full of old lights.

In celebration of Earth Day, students were given a checklist of things they could do to help the earth. The checklists went home 2 weeks before Earth Day and were brought back to school a few days before Earth Day. As incentive, one person from each class, K through 8th grade, had a chance to win a $20 gift card from Target.

An Earth Day banner was hung in the cafeteria on Earth Day to remind the kids of the importance of helping the earth. This year's theme, "Our Power, Our Planet" was placed on the banner., along with the topics: Air, Land, Water, and Climate - all crucial to our life on earth.

Each of the 30 tables in the cafeteria had a 2-sided placard placed on it. This side of the placard reminded the kids that "The Earth's future is in Your Hands."

This side of the placard reminded the kids of what they can do to help the earth: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle all you can.