A Habit of Love: Thanksgiving Drive Recap
This year the Blue Jay community served Thanksgiving baskets to over 500 families in the New Orleans Area. Written by Paul Sparacello.
Jesuit High School faced an unprecedented number of requests for baskets during this year’s annual Thanksgiving Drive, reflecting the growing need in the New Orleans area. However, in true Blue Jay spirit, the Jesuit community showed its generosity and rose to the challenge.
This year, Jesuit High School provided an impressive 644 baskets — an increase of nearly 15 percent over last year’s total of 560, according to Service Project Coordinator Scott Delatte. In mid-October, Delatte shared with faculty and various alumni groups that this year’s number of requests was coming in higher than last year. The Jesuit community jumped in to help, with support pouring in from current students, teachers, staff, alumni, parents, and friends to meet the increased demand.
“So many groups then stepped up to fulfill that need,” Delatte said. “To me, this speaks to the desire to be generous with our own blessings each year. There is something about the Thanksgiving Drive that calls Blue Jays to be incredibly generous, because they recognize how greatly they have been blessed and want to bestow these blessings upon others.”
The way that Jesuit alumni came forward to help shows that the Jesuit call to be “men for others” is truly a lifetime commitment. This year, 11 alumni classes volunteered to assemble baskets, and, along with the alumni office, contributed an impressive total of 334 baskets.
“There is something about the Thanksgiving Drive that calls Blue Jays to be incredibly generous.”
- Mr. Scott Delatte ‘06
Current students and teachers played a major role, with 46 homerooms coming together to assemble a total of 253 baskets.
When Spanish teacher Kendall Gibson heard from Delatte that there was shaping up to be a record number of requests for baskets, she asked her homeroom of Jesuit juniors if they would consider donating for seven baskets instead of the normal five.
“It was something tangible that we as a class could do,” Gibson said. “When I brought it up in homeroom, the students seemed immediately in. No one complained about the extra money. No one complained about bringing extra goods.
“I feel grateful that we, as a school, are able to give so many people a special holiday,” Gibson stated. “I feel grateful that I get to help my students with their part in it, and hopefully every year that they’re here, they see its value more and more…At the end of our lives, we don’t get to take our money or popularity or possessions. All we have are the choices we make and the people whose lives we touch.”
As they do every year, Jesuit students gathered before dawn at Robert Fresh Market in Lakeview to buy groceries, then descended on Carrollton and Banks to assemble the boxes.
The Thanksgiving Drive has been an important tradition at Jesuit for nearly 100 years. Delatte said, “I firmly believe that the Thanksgiving Drive is one of the most important things that we do at Jesuit High School, for it serves as an icon of what our school is all about. The Thanksgiving Drive is about using your own gifts and talents in order to serve others. But even in the midst of this busy day, at our prayer service, we stop to thank God and ask him to bless our efforts, that they may be for his greater glory and not our own.”
Jesuit senior Christian Thomas gave a stirring speech at the prayer service, imparting to students how impactful service has been to him throughout his Jesuit career. He spoke about his Senior Service Project, when he served with charity organizations in Brownsville, Texas, on the border with Mexico, where he served as a Spanish translator for his volunteer group.
Christian recounted meeting a Jesuit priest who lives out the Catholic tenet of subsidiarity and “understands that the most meaningful work he can do on behalf of the migrants is serving them immediately and directly.”
“Here at Jesuit, I think that the Thanksgiving Drive reflects this principle because we’re really helping to alleviate the pressing issue of economic insecurity, which affects not only the local community around Jesuit High School but also our state a lot more than it affects other areas of the country.”
Christian encouraged students to pursue the many service opportunities that Jesuit High School makes possible, emphasizing the transformative power of giving back. “It really is just eye-opening, and it may change your life,” he said.
After the prayer service, Jesuit students went into the community to deliver the baskets and meet the people their hard work would help.
Delatte believes the Thanksgiving Drive is emblematic of what Jesuit hopes to instill in its students: “a habit of love and concern for others, leading to generosity towards others, in service of God as men of faith.”