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Giving Back in Gratitude

Each year, the Eighth Grade, guided by their teacher Tom Ryan, leads our school-wide Thanksgiving Turkey Drive. This morning found the boys busy lifting boxes filled with turkeys and canned goods, and packing the van that will transport the food to the Lion of Judah Assembly and Bethel Community Church.
Throughout November, the eighth graders collected nonperishable food from boys in all classes and ran a pie sale, with proceeds going toward the purchase of the turkeys. The Thanksgiving Food Drive is our school's oldest community action project, and it is met each year with enthusiasm and initiative on the part of our boys.

Giving back, doing good by helping those in need, is one of the most powerful ways we can express gratitude for our myriad blessings.

Recently, I met with an alum at his high school, where he is a senior, at the brink of adulthood. When reflecting on the motto of Saint David's, "That they be good men," he said: "Saint David's is where I was raised. It wasn’t just where I went to school. I spent more than half my life there. Every day now when I have to make a decision that questions my values, I think of it. The motto has stuck with me more than a lot of things."

As we enter this Holiday season, let us be grateful, and celebrate our unique human ability for reason, for service, and for doing good and being good.  Ut viri boni sint. Happy Thanksgiving!

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