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St. Finn Barr School students Evelina Erazo-Marenco, Gabriela Ramirez and Caleb Ramos are pictured Dec. 9 with donations made to the San Francisco parochial school's One Warm Coat drive. (Photo by Christina Gray/Catholic San Francisco)
Dec. 10, 2019
Christina Gray
Catholic San Francisco
Students Evelina Erazo-Marenco, Gabriela Ramirez and Caleb Ramos surveyed the furry, fluffy and fancy contents of two large barrels in the lobby of St. Finn Barr School when Catholic San Francisco popped in Dec. 9.
Down coats with faux fox-lined hoods, wooly jackets, waterproof trench coats, pint-sized parkas and even a glittery designer sweatshirt were among the items plumbed from the depths of the drums set out for the school’s One Warm Coat drive.
The three eighth graders are leaders of the K-8 school’s new campus ministry team led by middle school teacher Caroline Shimeld which organized the annual drive according to St. Finn Barr principal Mele Mortonson.
“Service learning is an ongoing part of our identity as a school and this coat drive fits into that,” said Mortonson about the project that ends Dec. 19.
One Warm Coat is a San Francisco-based, national non-profit that supports individuals and organizations such as St. Finn Barr with resources needed to hold a successful coat drive.
Locally collected coats under One Warm Coat always benefit local poor, and the coats collected by St. Finn Barr School will benefit St. Anthony Foundation in the city’s Tenderloin district. The nonprofit operates a free clothing program for the city’s most needy citizens.
“We researched the history of St. Anthony Foundation and made students and school families aware of its work,” said Erazo-Marenco.
One Warm Coat is among many service ministry projects that weaves together students, studies and the needs of the community, said Mortonson. Not far from the barrels of donated coats in the school lobby were barrels of toys for the San Francisco Fire Department’s Christmas toy drive. Students also collect Christmas gifts for children in the local foster care system.
She said middle schoolers are connecting the dots between their study of economics, world history and other subjects which help them understand the “underlying conditions” of poverty.
“It’s exciting for them to have this building understanding of why the world is the way it is and then to execute the simple projects to help,” she said.