San Francisco de Asis Catholic School (SFdA) is holding a schoolwide pet supply drive this week to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
Students of all grade levels have been bringing supplies into their classrooms to donate to local animal shelters. These supplies range from paper towels and puppy pads to cat food, leashes and water dishes.
Each classroom has a decorated box set aside to hold donations, which will be gathered through Wednesday, Oct. 11. At the end of the drive, the classroom with the most donations will get to accompany the donations to the shelters and meet some of the animals that will be using them.
On Monday morning, the fourth-grade class was excited to say they were winning, with almost two full boxes of dog food, dish soap and other supplies. One student mentioned a yellow blanket they’d brought in, while another had brought a six-pack of paper towels.
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The entire school is participating in the drive, from preschoolers to eighth-graders. SFdA has also been getting involved, with the parish contributing donations.
Student councilmember Grace Coleman said that, so far, the drive has raised around $800 to fund medical supplies for the animal shelters in addition to the supplies brought into the classrooms. Students at all grade levels said they had plans to bring more supplies in before the end of the week.
“I think it’s important because, especially us being St. Francis’s school, cause St. Francis really loved the animals,” said Zoe Hammer, another student councilmember. “ … It’s really good to help them out.”
“Some animals aren’t as privileged, so they can’t get as much food or things that they need,” said second-grader Nola Dolentz.
In past years, the school has celebrated the Feast of St. Francis with the traditional Blessing of the Animals.
“It’s important to take care of animals, because they’re important and they have value,” added Dolentz’s classmate, Elenora Coleman.
St. Francis is often recognizable in statues and paintings by the birds perched on his shoulder. The saint can be found in several SFdA class projects this week as well, with third-graders illustrating lines from a poem, kindergartners bringing in stuffed animals and first-graders writing out on a construction paper cutout the ways they plan to appreciate nature.
Because the feast day — Oct. 4 — falls in the middle of the week this year on a Wednesday, SFdA came up with the drive as a new tradition that honors St. Francis’s care for animals while helping out the local community. The hope, said principal Tom Sorci, is that the drive will become a new tradition at the school.
The second-grade class on Monday discussed why it was important to take care of animals. Most of the students said they had a pet at home.
“Animals are a big part of our ecosystem, because without animals, we die out,” said George Moran.
“They’re all part of God’s creation,” added his brother, Isaiah Moran. “So it’s just reasonable to take care of everything we can.”
“Sometimes they’re mistreated, and, like other people said, they’re often forgotten. So we really need to take care of them, because there might be not as many as there was before, so we just need to take care of them,” said Azul Batrez.
SFdA is inviting interested Flagstaff residents to join in the drive by dropping off supplies at the school office through Oct. 11.
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