Penn-Trafford 8thgraders collect donations for school food program

When tasked with completing a community service project leading up to their Catholic confirmation ceremony, eighth grade Penn-Trafford students Jillian Rettger, Ashley Hetrick and Gabby Geary knew they wanted to support the district’s supplemental nutrition program, Backpacks-to-Go.

The program, which supports the district’s families in need, gathers meals and snacks for students to take home every two weeks. Boxes of food are also given out during the summer months.

“It hit close to home that we were helping out people in our district that didn’t have enough resources,” said Rettger, 13.

Rettger and Geary, of Penn Middle School, play soccer for Penn-Trafford and Allegheny Force Football Club alongside Trafford Middle School student Hetrick.

The girls gathered at Giant Eagle in Penn Township in mid-January to collect nonperishable foods and monetary donations to support Backpacks-to-Go. Three hours later, the girls left carrying 10 boxes filled with food and about $850 in donations.

“From my perspective, I was really thankful for everyone that contributed,” said Hetrick, 14. “For something as small as a little confirmation project on a random Sunday, it means a lot to see how much people want to give back to the community.”

The girls’ confirmation ceremony — a Catholic sacrament in which the participant receives the Holy Spirit — will take place late April at St. Barbara’s Catholic Church in Penn Township.

Completing a community service project is a requirement for the ceremony in the Diocese of Greensburg, said Joan Duncan, director of faith formation at St. Barbara’s.

“For me, my hope is that these eighth graders, these teenagers, begin to realize they are the hands and feet of Christ,” Duncan said of the community service project requirement. “We are given the gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us go out and be the hands and feet of Jesus to the people who need it.”

The project — completed by 40 to 50 confirmation candidates at St. Barbara’s each year — must serve the parish or surrounding community, Duncan said.

Previous candidates, she said, have volunteered at the Westmoreland Food Bank in Salem, made meals for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House at Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital and collected donations to purchase Christmas gifts for Penn Township families.

“I feel like it kind of helps me get closer to God by helping the people around me and just kind of doing something for the good,” said Geary, 14.

The girls will create a poster board showing the results of the food drive which will be displayed at St. Barbara’s following the confirmation ceremony.