Photo courtesy of St. Nicholas School
St. Nicholas eighth graders read to children at the Children's Reading Corner in San Jose Nov. 12.
Town Crier Staff Writer
Dana Saign said she never thought much about what it would be like to start off her morning without something as basic as a toothbrush until she participated in her school's community outreach program.
These days the St. Nicholas eighth grader said, in the back of her mind, she is always thinking about how she might help others in need.
"I see things when I'm going through my closest and think about giving stuff that I didn't think about before," she said.
Most recently students from the Los Altos Hills school in grades K, 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 helped to launch the Children's Reading Corner at the new Sacred Heart Community Services building in San Jose Nov. 12.
Audrey Foraker, co-coordinator of the outreach program, said students began collecting books and raising funds for the new reading corner after Sacred Heart burned down last year and had to be rebuilt.
"We wanted something that would be used in a way with children," she said. "We offered to help put something together that would focus on reading materials for children and give them a place to go."
Foraker said students collected about $3,000 at their aluminum can drive and Lenten soup supper fund-raisers. In addition, they collected about 300 books, she said. They raised enough funds to buy bookshelves, too, she said.
Foraker compared the reading area, which is located in a corner of the new Sacred Heart center, to a "warm, comfortable place," much like the living room of a house. In addition to the reading corner, the center provides food, clothing and rental assistance for community members.
"This is really an intangible gift to the center," Foraker said. "Most of the children who are being helped, live in small apartments. This is a nice refuge for them to go into the center and be helped by other students."
St. Nicholas students brought boxes of books to the center this month and read to preschool children, Foraker said. This is the second time this school year that students have met with families at the center, she said.
Foraker said St. Nicholas and Sacred Heart developed their partnership about four years ago as part of the school's Family to Family outreach program. She said the school also has a partnership with St. Francis of Assisi in East Palo Alto as part of the Community Connection outreach program.
"We don't want a check from home. What we want is for children to really experience giving and being involved," Foraker said.