On St Joseph the Worker day all the students from St Joseph’s Catholic School go out into the community and do some sort of manual work.

We have ‘households’ at the school. These are extended homeroom groups. Boys and girls are separate, and kids from each year group are together–staying in the household for the whole time of their school career. So they are like little fraternities and sororities.
My group of fifteen boys went to help a charity called ‘Clean Start.’ Begun by a group of local Catholics, it is a refuge for homeless people to go and have a shower, get new second hand clothes, wash their clothes, pick up their mail and try to get back on their feet.
We did some yard work, moved furniture and painted the floor. Not much in a needy world, but a chance for the boys and girls to see how the other half live, make a contribution, and most of all, to learn how much their contribution is needed.