‘Club Vinny’ teaches St. Charles students service, community and outreach

TACOMA — Making 400 sandwiches for people in need was the first project for middle schoolers in the new SCB Club Vinny group at St. Charles Borromeo School.

“I thought it was a great opportunity to do some service,” said Kyla O’Neal, an eighth grader. “It feels good to help out the community.”

The sandwiches were distributed as part of the parish’s monthly meal prepared for Catholic Community Services’ Hospitality Kitchen in Tacoma.

By partnering with the parish’s year-old Society of St. Vincent de Paul conference (a parish-based group) ties in with the school’s theme this year — “Loving God through serving others,” said principal Beth O’Reilly.

“We’re going to double down on service,” O’Reilly said.

She said about 65 elementary and middle school students have joined the group, whose name is a take-off on “Vincentians,” the name for adult SVdP members. 

Tracy Peacock, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul Tacoma, Pierce County, said it’s the only SVdP student group she knows of in Pierce County.

At St. Charles, the new conference for adults has 38 members, said JoAnne Hawkins, conference president. Conference members wanted to get the parish school involved and pitched the idea to the principal: St. Vincent de Paul could help students with their service projects and students could support the conference’s projects, helping instill the values of service, community and church participation in the students, Hawkins said.

“Every time we do a project, we’re going to bring the kids in,” she added.

Making sandwiches, writing notes

On a recent weekday, some 30 middle school students gathered in Feist Hall, next to the school’s kitchen, to make the 400 sandwiches. They finished in about an hour.

“It was a bonding moment with my friends,” said Jackson Fuller, an eighth grader.

Sandwich-making isn’t new to St. Charles, according to retired principal Patrick Feist. Before the pandemic, students made sandwiches, and Feist, still a St. Charles parishioner, wanted to see that work resume, including “the nicest notes written by little kids.”

Those notes are important to the recipients, Feist said, adding that he heard about a CCS staff member who saw students’ notes decorating the inside of a homeless person’s tent. 

Although students weren’t able to write notes in January, they will try when they next make sandwiches, O’Reilly said.

The Club Vinny group will make sandwiches once a month; in February, the students will also make Valentine’s Day cards for parishioners who are 80 and older, O’Reilly said.

Hawkins said she would like to see other schools establish a St. Vincent de Paul student group. 

“The most important thing about St. Vincent de Paul is spiritual formation,” Hawkins said. The second is reaching out to those in the community who have the most need, she added.

Being a part of SVdP “definitely brings me closer to God 100 percent,” O’Neal said.