Torrance, CA (September 26, 2018): For 14 years, BMHS Concordia members have been collecting, sorting, packaging and sending thousands of school supplies to many needy children in San Diego and in Mexico. The annual school supply project begins each spring at Bishop Montgomery-- on the day when students clean out their lockers in anticipation of summer vacation. Bishop students donate their unused paper, notebooks, pens and pencils. Our local partner schools also pitch in and their elementary students donate unused supplies as well. Once all of the collections are done, Concordia members gather back to BMHS to help ready the supplies for distribution.
During the project’s first ten years, the bulk of the donations came from Visitation School in Westchester and St. James School in Torrance, two of Bishop’s primary partner elementary schools. Staff at each of the elementary schools, along with BMHS alumna, coordinated the collection of their schools’ collection of hundreds of pounds of school supplies. Concordia members and sisters Sammi ‘11 and Sara Toia ’15 and Lauren ‘11 and Kelly Hugo ’15 were among many students who worked as liaisons with the elementary schools, promoting the project among students and teachers.
Four years ago, Kevin O’Donnell ‘18 introduced the project to his elementary school, St. Lawrence Martyr in Redondo Beach, and he started promoting, collecting, and sorting their schools supplies as well. This spring, Katalina Lomibao ‘19, also a St. Lawrence Martyr alumnus, joined Kevin’s effort. At the same time, with the help of Mrs. Dianne Vicelja and her three children, Joseph ’15, Anthony ‘16 and Allison ‘18, St. Margaret Mary School in Lomita joined the project and collected their students’ supplies and uniforms. And, this spring, Noah Riddick ’21 introduced the idea to Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Hermosa Beach and they, too, became part of the effort.
After all of the school supplies were collected-- markers, pencils, paper, glue, binders, notebooks, backpacks, rulers, and many more useful items-- they were brought to BMHS’ Schneider Retreat Center where, over the course of a few days, Bishop’s students sorted them by kind, bagging thousands of pens, scissors, erasers, crayons, folders. Later, they separated everything into equal loads to be distributed to all of the organizations seeking help.
This year, Concordia sent thousands of supplies to two San Diego-area public schools, one where Sammi Toia teaches second grade, and the other where Mrs. Alycia Galdámez (daughter-in-law of BMHS teacher Dulcie Galdámez and wife of BMHS alumnus Jonathan Galdámez’s ’11) teaches fifth grade. Other organizations included a Catholic elementary school in Ensenada, Mexico; a Catholic orphanage in Sonora, Mexico; and, Covenant House in Hollywood where homeless young adults are given the opportunity to start again and go back to school.
Now that Bishop Montgomery is back in session, our students, who gave so much to this project, are gratified knowing that the many recipients of the supplies might have better chance to succeed in their education endeavors because of their efforts. For Concordia, the school supply project is just one of many service projects that support children around the globe and provide BMHS students an opportunity to share their time and treasures with those who need it most.