Driscoll kids raise cash with work day

Instead of selling sweets or treats to collect money for their school, students at Driscoll Catholic High School pay it forward each fall.

For its 16th annual Help-A-Thon today, all Driscoll students will participate in community service projects around DuPage and Cook counties. Their work serves as an exchange for pledges they received from family and friends.

"It's a way of saying thank-you to our donors, by doing community service in the area," said Kathy Jarosz, the Help-A-Thon organizer.

Proceeds from the event, which aims to raise $65,000 this year, will benefit Driscoll and help finance interior and exterior improvements to the school.

Approximately 500 people, including staff and parents, will head to local organizations like Spring Brook Nature Center in Itasca or Little Sisters of the Poor at St. Joseph's Home in Palatine.

Some will clean wheelchairs, others will garden and pull weeds, and some will work at schools helping with filing or with younger students.

More than 25 not-for-profit agencies will benefit from the Help-A-Thon, and Jarosz said the students realize their work makes an impact.

"I think the kids really realize that what they're doing is something beneficial," she said.

In addition to their work in the suburbs, Driscoll faculty and students also will deliver school supplies they've been collecting since the beginning of the year to the two San Miguel Schools in Chicago.

Some Driscoll students and faculty also will remain on campus to wrap gifts for the DuPage Humanitarian Project and to work on the grounds.

Other students, along with school President Tom Geraghty, will remain on campus to weed and prepare the ground for a new prayer garden in the library courtyard of the school.