School wide, as well as, classroom service projects are fundamentally important to our mission here at STS. Our student council, as leaders in our building, help organize our annual Neighborhood House Toy Drive. STS partners with the Neighborhood House, which allows our students to help run their sale.
Pre3 – At Christmas students collect toys, baby items, diapers and other necessities needed for the women and children supported by the Peoria Women’s Care Center. The Women’s Care Center provides free, confidential counseling, support and education for pregnant women and families. They also supply at no cost pregnancy testing and ultrasounds.
PreK – Our Pre-kindergarten classes partnered with Scholastic Book Clubs and The Pajama Program to donate pajamas for children in need. New sets of pajamas were delivered to The Center for the Prevention of Abuse. Scholastic donated a new book to go with each set of pajamas. Now, more children can enjoy a more comfy bedtime.
Kindergarten – The Kindergarten class celebrates the 50th day of school with an act of service. Our celebration includes a 1950’s sock hop. Students send in so many socks and gifts and in conjunction with these donations, they got to participate in a fun filled 50’s themed celebration!
For our service project, we collect socks to donate to residents at St. Augustine Manor. We usually collect over 100 pairs of socks! We also collect crossword puzzles and gloves for the residents. All of the items are given to the residents for Christmas. We have had so much fun spreading kindness and service to our friends at St. Augustine Manor.
- 1st Grade – In conjunction with our 101st day of school celebration and our classroom saint St. Francis, we partner with the pet organization Foster Pet Outreach. Students bring in items that are most in need by the organization such as food, beds, and blankets.
- 2nd Grade – Our Second Grade students have created handmade cards for many elderly prayer pals. We have written letters for birthdays, Christmas, and most recently Valentine’s Day. We will continue to make cards throughout our school year for other holidays as well.
- 3rd Grade – During the first week of March, STS celebrates “Read Across America” and the birthday of Dr. Seuss. The third grade classes will collect new and like new books to share with the Boys and Girls Club of Peoria. It is our mission to share God’s love and to share the love of reading.
- 4th Grade – We work with the St. Thomas Food Pantry throughout the school year. We try to keep their shelves stocked with multiple school -wide food drives.
- 5th Grade – Our 5th grade class writes thank you letters and creates prayer rocks to veterans who are returning from an Honor Flight. They are encouraged to attend the homecoming at the airport to welcome the vets back to Peoria. In addition, they raise funds to help send a veteran on the Honor Flight.
- 6th Grade – The 6th graders have a sock drive to help benefit those in need in the Peoria area.
- 7th Grade – Our 7th grade students work with the Women’s Care Center assembling welcome bags. These bags are given out to the clients as they come in.
- 8th Grade – Every Thursday morning, a small group of students goes to the food pantry to help in whatever capacity is needed. Once a month students also go over and help unload the truck from Midwest Food Bank.
Our students enter St. Thomas the Apostle to learn, and exit to serve!
