By Alexandra Margeu, Roxana Margelu, and Breanna Wells
DEC. 11, 2021
Thanksgiving is the time to be thankful and grateful, however, because of the continued threat of COVID-19, normal Thanksgiving has taken a sharp turn from its original path. Large family dinners were canceled and volunteering was prohibited in many areas.
The inability to maintain in-person contact because of online school as well as social distancing guidelines hasn’t stopped Saint Thomas Aquinas (STA) from giving back to the community. STA is continuing its annual November tradition called Senior Thanksgiving Baskets. Every year STA’s religion teachers and senior students band together two to three weeks before Thanksgiving to give out food to the less fortunate. This year changes needed to be made to accommodate the circumstances, which included a drop-off area for goods at STA, small groups fixing bags, and the cancelation of seniors delivering their bags to their destination. Even with the changes made, STA students exceeded all expectations and brought numerous amounts of Thanksgiving goods to be bagged. STA as a whole ended up collecting 120 bags of food for St. Vincent de Paul, feeding many families who were struggling, especially with a pandemic occurring.
Of course, Thanksgiving is the time to be thankful and grateful, but it’s also a time to give to those who are struggling and are in need. The STA student body will hopefully continue with its many volunteering projects despite the pandemic and work to improve and help the community to the best of its ability.