Our brothers and sisters in Christ from Africa and Ukraine will benefit from this year’s Parable of the Talents projects.
Students in diocesan Catholic schools, St. Mary’s Academy in Bismarck, and Trinity High School in Dickinson, took part in the efforts to raise funds for those in need. The goal is for each student to start with a talent ($10) and go out and multiply their talents to give back to a chosen charity.
As in the past, students from St. Mary’s Academy chose a large portion of the funds raised to be donated to the Diocese of Bismarck African Mission to purchase water filtration systems for families in Kenya, East Africa. Each water filter can last for up to 10 years and filter up to one million gallons of water. This year, the students in grades seven and eight presented Bishop Kagan with a check for $12,000 to assist the work of the diocesan African Mission.
New this year, Trinity High School joined in with their own version of the project. Students of Catholic Life and Love joined the efforts at their school inspired to donate their funds to the Ukrainian Relief Fund. The students (primarily freshmen) partnered with Fr. Martin Nagy, Pastor of St. John the Baptist and St. Demetrius Ukrainian Catholic Churches in Belfield and presented him with a check in the amount of $7,000.51. These funds included $2,400 from their Parable of the Talents project and over $963 from several of their dress-down days, along with a donation from the St. Mary’s Academy students (over $3,640) from their parable project toward the Ukrainian Relief Fund.
The money of this fund goes directly to humanitarian aid through the Knights of Columbus in Ukraine and Poland, helping refugees. Some of the aid goes to the Ukrainian Catholic University in L’viv, Ukraine. The students and faculty there offer medical supplies, food, clothing, shelter and transportation to victims and refugees. One group of university students is also rescuing disabled and autistic children and their families from embattled areas and helping them get to a safe location.
Saint Mary’s Academy religion teacher, Duane Eichele, leads the annual project, inspired by the bible story of the Parable of the Talents. The aim is to use Jesus’ teachings as a springboard to affect change and make a difference in the world by paying it forward. Students are given $10 each from an outside donor and then asked to use their imagination through a variety of creative projects like bake sales, arts, crafts, chores or other products or services to raise money with the hope that the students return more than they were given. The project also connects all areas of education involving other classrooms in the management and accountability of the project.
In addition to classroom work, the students from both St. Mary’s Academy and Trinity High School were given a chance to expand their faith by attending a Ukrainian Rite Mass at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church in Belfield in late April. Father Martin Nagy, the pastor, took the opportunity to help the students learn about how the two rites came to be— the Western (Latin) Rite, led by St. Peter, and the Eastern Rite (like the Ukrainian Rite), led by his brother, St. Andrew. Two rites teach and celebrate differently but with the same Catholic faith—not contradicting but complementing.
The partnership between students from Trinity Catholic Schools and St. Mary's Academy turned into a donation of more than $18,000 for the two chosen charities.