2024 Catholic Schools Week Supplement
Volunteerism helps create a ‘family feel’ between a parish and its school
Mila Baker, left, a pre-kindergarten student at St. Roch School in Indianapolis, smiles during a lunch period at Lori Tobin, a member of St. Roch Parish who volunteers in the school’s cafeteria. (Submitted photo)
By Sean Gallagher
Parish schools everywhere depend on the volunteer help they get from members of the faith community that sponsor it.
But for Amy Wilson, the principal of St. Roch School in Indianapolis, that reality goes far beyond simply making sure that lunchroom duty is accounted for or well-trained hands are found for a renovation project.
She’s led the school of the Indianapolis South Deanery faith community for the past seven years and has been on its staff for 23.
During that time, she’s seen countless times how the ministry of the school is wholly integrated into the service of the parish as a whole.
“There’s always been, in my opinion, that connection between the parish and the school,” Wilson said. “We want for nothing because of our parish. The school thrives because of the parishioners who put so much time and love into it.”
Father Douglas Hunter, who has led St. Roch Parish since 2018, agrees, saying that the school “allows us to truly live out our faith.
“It’s an active participation not only in the Eucharist, but in life outside of a church building.”
Doing small things with great love
Most of the time, the help that members of
St. Roch Parish give to its school happens in small ways that can easily go unnoticed. It might be the parish’s women’s club donating paper towels and tissues for use in classrooms, the school’s parent-teacher organization coordinating a Halloween party or volunteers staffing the cafeteria at lunchtime.
“St. Teresa of Calcutta said to do small things with great love,” Wilson said. “That’s what St. Roch does. And all of those small things multiply. It’s like a snowball.”
Getting parents, grandparents and other parishioners to give time to the school in small ways frees up teachers to put more of their focus on instruction, Wilson added.
“It’s our goal to make sure that they have as much time during the day as they can,” she said. “Our volunteers help us to be able to do that. Without them, we’d have to have two or three teachers down in the cafeteria every lunch to help.”
Lori Tobin once had grandchildren who were students at St. Roch. Although they’re no longer there, she continues to volunteer at the school because she sees the effect that she and fellow volunteers have on the students.
“The kids have a sense of security around us,” Tobin said. “They want to tell us stories like they would tell their grandma. There’s a comfort, a compassion and energy here. They want a hug. And they know that if they have a problem that they’ll be helped.”
Wilson noted that the students witnessing the generosity of the volunteers in the school is an important part of the formation in the faith they receive there.
“It forms them into the disciples that we want them to be,” she said. “Our job here is to get them to heaven, to make them saints. These kids witness these people coming in and showing what it’s like to be a true-life disciple.”
‘That’s such a big part of our faith’
The test of a true disciple sometimes happens when hard times arrive. For Christina Murray, the community at St. Roch passed that test with flying colors.
Cam, her youngest child and now a kindergartner at St. Roch, was diagnosed with leukemia last year.
When the diagnosis became known in the St. Roch community, support came flooding in.
Around the same time, another family in the school community—one that had helped the Murray family after Cam’s diagnosis—had a child develop a serious illness.
“We did a meal train for months,” Wilson said. “We did a prayer service where a lot of the parish came out and prayed with us for [the sick children]. It’s been amazing to watch this parish rally around these families.”
“I can’t describe the support we have had from our
St. Roch community,” Murray said, holding back tears. “It just speaks to St. Roch as a family. Everyone is like my family. It extends so far beyond the walls of the school. It’s the people.”
Although the support given to and through the school has great personal meaning for Murray, she knows how much it means to the school’s mission, serving as she does as president of the school’s parent-teacher organization.
“That volunteerism makes it really easy as a parent to say to my kids that they have to be a part of something bigger than themselves,” she said. “That’s such a big part of our faith.”
‘That family feel’
The service that a broad array of people give to
St. Roch contributes to building a strong community that then becomes a seedbed for strong faith.
Seminarian Samuel Hansen experienced that as a student at St. Roch in the connections he made with staff members and volunteer coaches, many of whom came from families with a long and continuing history in the parish and its school.
“It really had a family feel,” said Hansen, who is in formation for the priesthood at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad. “I still see that when I come back. A lot of the same families are here. It’s incredible.”
Looking back on what led to his discernment of a possible priestly call, he gives a lot of credit to what he experienced at St. Roch.
“My conception of ministry began here with coaches, teachers and lunch ladies, people doing small things,” Hansen said. “Ministry is doing God’s will. I saw that here long before I considered the priesthood.”
The strength of the community in St. Roch and its school has built ties that have bound many in it for a long time, said Wilson.
Although she’s been on the school’s staff for 23 years, she said there are many others who have more seniority there than she does.
“People come in and they stay,” Wilson said. “That’s a testament to this community. We’ve built something here that people want to be a part of. I think that’s what makes St. Roch so special.” †
