April 5, 2020 // Diocese

Around the Diocese: April 5, 2020

Todays Catholic

Blessed Solanus: Canoe the Wabash

FORT WAYNE — The Blessed Solanus: Canoe the Wabash event will be an outdoor canoe pilgrimage with high school youth from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 30. The day will begin with Mass at St. Felix Friary in Huntington to celebrate the feast day of Blessed Solanus Casey, and following Mass, participants will embark on a 15+ mile canoe trip down the Wabash River.

A $60 registration fee will cover canoe rental, shuttle service from Wabash to Huntington and a meal. Registration opens May 1 at http://www.fwsbym.com. For more information contact John Pratt at [email protected].

High schools donate equipment, lunches

SOUTH BEND — As Saint Joseph High School, South Bend, shifted courses to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, students in the school’s Project Lead the Way biomedical track began participating in virtual labs. Normally, biomedical students would enter a classroom and observe standard lab procedure, donning personal protective equipment such as disposable gloves, gowns and safety glasses; but now that the class is meeting online, students are not utilizing the equipment.

In light of projected shortages on personal protective equipment, the school decided to donate the unused items to medical personnel. While the quantities are limited, the school felt called to do what it can to support the greater community at this time, and to contribute to the fight against the coronavirus. The items were donated to Saint Joseph Health Systems and consisted of three boxes of 50 disposable isolation gowns in large and extra-large sizes, two boxes of Comfort Face Masks, 23 pairs of safety glasses, two cans of Lysol, eight boxes of large-size gloves one box of medium-size gloves.

The school has also partnered with Marian High School, Mishawaka, to ensure healthy meals for school-age children in Michiana. Saint Joseph was granted special permission from the Indiana Department of Education to be a lunch distribution site and has been serving its own students and their siblings since e-learning began. The temporary permit restricts the school from serving students not associated with Saint Joseph, but thanks to the partnership with Marian the program has nonetheless been able to expand.

Since Monday, March 23, area school-age children in the South Bend and Mishawaka have been able to pick up a lunch at St. John the Baptist, St. Adalbert, Holy Cross and Corpus Christi schools. Lunches are available Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The children do not have to be enrolled at the Catholic elementary schools in order to receive a lunch. Saint Joseph High School students and their siblings can pick up lunches Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Saint Joseph High School loading dock on Cedar Street.

Colleen Schena
A member of St. Joseph Parish, Mishawaka, checks in with his neighbor, who is homebound, in mid-March. With the blessing of pastor Father Chris Lapp, volunteers from the parish have initiated a service to ensure the physical, social and spiritual needs of homebound and elderly parishioners during the stay-at-home order enacted to stop the spread of COVID-19. “We just wanted to do something to be helpful,” said co-organizer Margaret Cabaniss. What means the most to people, they’ve discovered, is that someone has expressed interest in their day and asked for their prayer requests.