Seeing green in more ways than one

by Melissa Martin

For more than 30 years, students at St. Albert the Great at Assumption Academy have hosted a Leprechaun Fair on St. Patrick’s Day to raise funds for the Leprechaun Foundation, which helps grant wishes for children with chronic or terminal illnesses. This year, was no exception.

The event is coordinated and hosted annually by the school’s eighth-grade class, which planned and operated more than 20 carnival-style games, provided concessions and offered more than 40 raffle items for students to bid on as part of the fun.

Included in that list of raffle items was an opportunity to throw a pie in the face of Rick Kaliszewski, the school’s principal.

The eighth graders also sold festive green gear as well as chocolate-covered pretzels to students to help raise funds to benefit the community.

This year’s event, which took place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 17, concluded with an all-school rally, during which a winner was drawn in for the pie-in-the-face raffle.

In total, the day of fun raised more than $5,670 for the school’s Leprechaun foundation. By comparison, the 2020 event raised more than $2,000 and the 2021event raised more than $5,000.

This event is just one of many ways the students at Assumption are giving back to the community, said Jodie Varner, marketing and communications coordinator for Assumption church and school.

Recently, the students held dress-out-of-uniform days, raising more than $1,300 in the process to support St. Anthony of Padua School in Parma, which recently suffered a devastating fire.

The students also raised more than $1,700 for Catholic Relief Services in support of Ukraine and its thousands of refugees.