Our Lady of the Wayside students do service work during quarantine

Students at Our Lady of the Wayside School, Arlington Heights, have been engaged in e-learning for a few weeks now, but the school's mission and vision go beyond just academic learning.

As a Catholic school, service to others is a very important part of what the students learn. While teachers connect for a planning day once a week, students participate in a Service Learning Day. Instead of checking in and doing homework or logging into a Zoom class, they perform service work.

Last week, the students in all grades created 500 cards of gratitude and support for health care workers. Most of those were placed on car windshields in the staff parking lots at Lutheran General and Northwest Community hospitals.

Cards were also hand delivered to several local doctors' offices, as well as the mailboxes of some doctors and nurses in the Our Lady of the Wayside School and Parish community.

Additionally, sixth-grade Girl Scouts from Our Lady of the Wayside School decided to make cards for Journeys/PADS clients who are staying in hotels while most of the shelters are closed. PADS is an important and well-known ministry at Our Lady of the Wayside Parish, and the Girl Scouts wanted to bring some cheer to homeless men and women.

The girls also donated $200 from their cookie sales to buy food for St. Mark's Food Pantry. St. Mark's in Chicago is the sharing parish for Our Lady of the Wayside, and parishioners regularly collect and deliver nonperishable food items.

• Submit 'Your News' at www.dailyherald.com/share.