It’s a week of “Hope” at Pace High School as it celebrates Catholic Schools Week from January 30 through February 3.
“It feels like people are overwhelmed around the world,” said Pace Campus Minister Andres Novela. “One of the messages of the Gospels is that of ‘hope,’ so we want to share that hope with our Pace community and the world.”
The week is the biggest fundraiser of the year for Pace’s Haitian sister schools in Moulin, Pewou, and Lormand. The week opens with a Kick-off Mass for Pace students, faculty, staff, and members of the Pace community in the Pace chapel in the morning before school.
Throughout the week, Campus Ministry will sell sweatshop-free T-shirts, Haitian food, fair-trade iced coffee, Haitian artwork and crafts, and more at a fair-trade bazaar held every morning in the Pace plaza. Taizé prayer services with songs and chanted prayers will also be held in the chapel during the week and attended by Pace theology classes. Pace’s Ping Pong club will even host a three-day tournament with all entry fees going towards the Haitian sister schools.
February 1 is a day of sister school solidarity where students and teachers are asked to limit their use of technology, electricity, air conditioning and other amenities to re-create the condition of the Haitian sister schools. There will also be a solidarity lunch sold of simple rice and beans meant to emulate the Haitian students’ lunches. Finally, the week concludes with a Eucharistic celebration on February 2 celebrated with the entire Pace student body and a closing prayer service held after school.