Parishioners at Mary, Queen of Peace Parish in Sammamish collected school supplies that will benefit students at two Catholic elementary schools in Seattle as well as families seeking help through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. 

Mary, Queen of Peace is one of several parishes throughout the archdiocese organizing school supply drives. Those supplies will help students when they return to school after spending more than a year learning virtually due to the pandemic. 

“It’s helping the students and the teachers,” said Nicole Frietas, business manager at St. Therese Catholic Academy, one of the schools receiving supplies from Mary, Queen of Peace. More than 60% of the students at the school in Seattle’s Madrona neighborhood receive financial help. The school attracts students from 46 ZIP codes in the area. 

The donated school supplies help relieve stress among families and students. It’s also nice to have a surplus of crayons and markers teachers can access for their students during the school year, Frietas said. She added the school is also enrolling 50 more students than the previous school year. 

Parishioners at Mary, Queen of Peace spent three weeks collecting school supplies and donations after Mass. In addition to St. Therese, St. George School in Seattle received materials. 

“It takes a number of people to make it happen,” said Pat Johnson, a parishioner at Mary, Queen of Peace Parish who co-chairs the school supply drive with fellow parishioner Cindy Stevens. “We have an extremely generous congregation.” 

At Sacred Heart Parish in Lacey, children in the “Young Disciples” faith formation program and the RCIA for youth and children program teamed up to collect school supplies to help students in the Lacey area. 

“The summer is to take what we learned and put it into action,” said Anni Harry, RCIA and adult faith formation coordinator at Sacred Heart. 

The children were busy earlier in August filling around 30 backpacks with needed school supplies. The parish’s scouts delivered the backpacks, along with extra paper, pens, pencils, glue sticks and more to a local business that will distribute the supplies to schools throughout Thurston County, Harry said. She added that the whole parish was involved in the school supply drive. 

St. Louise de Marillac Parish in Bellevue spent three weeks collecting backpacks, supplies and donations for students. The school supply drive is scheduled in conjunction with the start of the school year and includes backpacks specific for each age. High school students need a backpack to accommodate a laptop, said Jeannie Duncan, a member of St. Louise’s social concerns committee. 

St. Louise, along with nearby Sacred Heart and St. Madeleine Sophie parishes, partners with other faith communities in Bellevue through Congregations for Kids to gather school supplies for students in need. 

Congregations for Kids in 2020 marked its 25th year providing school supplies for low-income students, helping nearly 2,000 students in Bellevue.

“Every year it seems it has grown,” said Duncan, who is also the group’s treasurer.