As one of the four pillars at St. Dominic, service is an important part of our school. It has been especially crucial for this pillar to be brought into the house system, so the house philanthropy captains have been working hard to spread the word.

Caritas has already completed their philanthropy drive for Youth in Need. Their fundraiser just took place within their house, instead of the entire house system. Because there was a time crunch, they had to keep it smaller. Luckily, it all worked out in the end because they got to help out Youth in Need!

Dignitas’ philanthropy drive is going on right now, and they have done a great job getting all the supplies they need. They assigned each house an item or category in which they could buy stuff to help out. The organization they are helping is the St. Agnes home, and their donations are sending a positive message. Mr. Small is helping out by making sure each house is participating in their drive.

“My favorite part is watching my student leader step up and completely dominate this. Tori Pollard is doing a fantastic job, as she planned and organized everything,” Mr. Small said.

House Gaudium is doing a fundraiser in November for Friends of Kids with Cancer, which will be the next philanthropy event of the year. Joey Berra is the philanthropy captain of Gaudium, and she is in charge of organizing the fundraiser and sharing how the students can help. She is really excited about helping Friends of Kids with Cancer because it is around Christmas, and she wants to make cards to help sick children feel better.

“I chose to be a philanthropy captain because I wanted to be the person who gives something back to the community, and the best way to do that was to help those in need. Hosting many fundraisers and donations also makes St. Dominic unique from other schools who rarely do it,” Berra said.

Gratia, Temperentia and Virtus will all host a philanthropy drive, but they will be doing that later in the year. Gratia will be helping the St. Patrick’s Center, Temperentia plans to aid L’arche STLand Virtus is donating to Crisis Nursery. Each house will get the entire house system, and the entire St. Dominic community, to participate in the philanthropy drives.

The house system is already off to a good start living out the pillar of service by donating to Dignias’ organization. Having philanthropy groups in the house system helps put the competition aside for a little bit and allows all of the houses to come together for a good cause!