A Good "No-School" Project: Thanksgiving Clothing Drive

Is this your closet?

"I get to sleep in until noon on Monday AND Tuesday!"
It's every student's favorite time of the school year, a four-day weekend.  As a child, my favorite part about long weekends was the shortened week before or after.  But now as an adult, I enjoy working on projects around the house, reading a few more chapters of my latest novel, and catching up with friends.

Pass on one of these these values to your children by planning a special project that will benefit those in need.  In a couple week's time, the annual St. Mark Thanksgiving Clothing Drive (TCD) will be up and running and will need donations from parishioners and others in the area.  Many families have come to rely on the TCD for warm coats and clothes to get through winter.  Here's how you can help:

• Go through your closet and look for warm items to donate.  Make sure the clothes are not raggedy and worn through.
• All sizes, styles, and types of clothes are accepted (but the largest need is for winter clothes).
• Collection begins in the St. Mark Activity Center on Saturday, November 19 (more details forthcoming).

You Clothed Me
Although giving clothes is a good thing in itself, give this project a faith backbone by reading Matthew 25: 31-46 (which, coincidentally, is the Gospel reading the Sunday before Thanksgiving).  Highlight the "clothing the naked" bit, noting that when we give our clothes, we are helping to clothe Christ who is present in the poor.  Jesus truly is "one of the these least brothers."  (Clothing the naked is one of the seven Corporal Works of Mercy, acts that are done to alleviate poverty and suffering in the world.)

Encourage your children (and yourself) to donate one item that you would never want to donate.  When we do that, we loosen the grasp our possessions have on us and open our lives more fully to the presence of Christ in the poor.

What will you donate this year?

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