This year, St. Dominic made several changes to the house philanthropy system. The process of combining the house philanthropies involved a lot of contemplating and questioning to make sure that the charities they were picking were the right ones. Many questions were posed, like which ones would allow students to be the most involved, make the biggest impact in the community, and which houses should be paired together.

At the top of all this questioning was Mr. Tock. At the end of last year, he decided to hold a meeting with those involved in the leadership of the philanthropy system. This meeting is where he first posed the aforementioned questions of which houses should be chosen. Many months later we see this combination in effect.

“The lens that we watched the whole thing on was, are we going to be able to work with this and have actual events with these people? So when we did that, of the six we had, we basically said only one was strongly considered to continue on. And then what we did after that was we said, What other ones are good options? And then we looked at amigos for Christ, because we’re sending kids into Nicaragua, and we have a really good working relationship with their director.”Mr. Tock stated when asked about the process of choosing and combining the house philanthropies.

The singular philanthropy that was kept from last year was L’Arche, Viritus and Gratias’ house philanthropy. L’Arche is an organization that provides homes and aid to those with disabilities throughout the Saint Louis area. L’Arche was kept due to its several opportunities for students to get involved, its impact on the disabled community and St. Dominic students, and the ease of communication between the charity and St. Dominic.

I am very excited to be able to help L’Arche by teaming up with Gratia.” Chloe Kirkpatrick, the Viritus philanthropy captain, stated when she was asked how she felt about the teaming up of Viritus and Gratia for L’Arche.

However, L’Arche is not the only charity that the house philanthropy system is working with. One of the other charities being supported by St. Dominic this year is Amigos for Christ. This charity provides clean water to small villages in Nicaragua, which St. Dominic students aid with on the mission trips there. Amigos for Christ also aids immigrants who have recently moved to America.

The third and final house philanthropy is Habitat for Humanity. They aid families across America build homes in their time of need. Habitat for Humanity was chosen because of its many opportunities to have the St. Dominic community aid in their mission.

This year has brought on many new philanthropies and opportunities to get involved in not only the house system, but the charities and community surrounding St. Dominic. One of these opportunities is coming up with the L’Arche annual Walk ‘N Roll in September. Many more opportunities will arise throughout this year.