Sacred Heart alum aligns service project with Catholic Schools Week
Published 12:05 am Thursday, February 9, 2023
Angelina Pierson coordinated a donation drive to raise items for the Family Crisis Council of Rowan County and the MiraVia Pregnancy Support. - Submitted
Sacred Heart Catholic School students collected items for Gray Stone senior Angelina Pierson's service project. - Submitted
Items that Angelina Pierson collected included baby wipes, hygeine products and laundry detergent. - Submitted
The Sacred Heart Catholic School pep squad performs at a pep rally at the school. - Chandler Inions
SALISBURY — Sometimes making a big difference is easier with a little help, as one local teen recently discovered during her senior service project.
Angelina Pierson is in her final year at Gray Stone Day School. For her senior service project, Pierson collected items for two nonprofits she was passionate about supporting — the Family Crisis Council of Rowan County and the MiraVia Pregnancy Support.
Knowing how essential various baby items can be to those organizations’ respective missions, Pierson began exploring ways to collect enough items to make a difference.
“Those types of items are expensive to obtain,” Pierson said. “Women in these places don’t have as much of an opportunity to get these items. I knew I did have the opportunity and ability to get them, so I wanted to help organize this drive to support those two organizations.”
The items that Pierson knew she needed to collect included baby wipes, baby clothes, baby shampoo, baby powder, toys, bottles, pajamas, cleaning supplies and school supplies.
When she was looking for groups to get involved in her project, she reached out to her former principal Erin Brinkley at Sacred Heart Catholic School. Pierson attended Sacred Heart from kindergarten through eighth grade.
Brinkley suggested that Pierson coincide her drive with Catholic Schools Week, the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. It starts on the last Sunday in January. The theme this year was “Faith. Excellence. Service.” Schools typically observe the annual celebration week with Masses, open houses and other activities for students, families, parishioners and community members.
Each day of the week, students and staff participated in various school spirit events like pep rallies, spelling bees and Bible bowls. However, Sacred Heart incorporated Pierson’s item drive all along the way, aiding a former student while fulfilling its own service mission.
Each grade level was given a different item on Pierson’s list. For example, third graders were challenged to bring in baby-feeding supplies, while fourth graders brought in laundry detergent.
Pierson collected more than 500 of the requested items throughout the week.
It just goes to show that there is strength in numbers.
