By Emily Chaffins -

 

Photography: Emily Chaffins | FC

MIAMI | Few of those who noticed a delivery truck outside St. Mary’s Cathedral School on the morning of Aug. 18 would’ve thought that the volunteers unloading boxes were carting anything other than a normal delivery.

However, what they were really delivering was hundreds of small joys.

For nearly 35 years, the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana and Kiwanis of Little Havana Foundation have coordinated their Back-to-School Project, giving school supplies to underprivileged students across South Florida. This August, they collaborated with the Archdiocese of Miami and other sponsors to bring supplies to over 15 schools, including three Catholic schools: St. Michael the Archangel and St. Mary’s Cathedral School in Miami, and St. James School in North Miami.

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This year, the longtime South Florida back-to-school effort took on a broader reach through a partnership with the Archdiocese of Miami. Not only are kids across Miami-Dade County receiving school supplies, but the Archdiocese of Miami and Kiwanis of Little Havana are undertaking a second initiative to prepare backpacks and classroom essentials for approximately 2,000 children in Haiti.

 

Supplying students in the Sunshine State

Kiwanis of Little Havana is a branch of Kiwanis International, a service organization with a large focus on supporting the youth. The Florida District involves over 5,500 members in more than 200 clubs spanning not only Florida, but also Turks and Caicos Islands and Grand Cayman.

“Education is a vital aspect of a child’s life, and we try to facilitate it as much as we can in the schools with the greatest need,” said Thomas Falcon, president of the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana, who is also a board member of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami.

Jorge Fernandez, chairman of the Kiwanis of Little Havana Foundation board of trustees, agreed. “It’s a great joy to be able to help.”

Students at St. Mary’s Cathedral School waited eagerly in line on Aug. 18 as volunteers filled their backpacks with back-to-school essentials: composition notebooks, filler paper, folders, crayons, pencils and pencil sharpeners, rulers, and blunt scissors.

At St. Mary’s Cathedral School alone, the supplies were gifted to more than 350 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

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“Our students don’t always have the means to get school supplies,” said Jocelyn Zlatkin, principal, noting that the Haitian-majority community is currently “going through a lot.”

“In the midst of everything, they’re still growing academically by leaps and bounds,” she said.

The principal noted that teachers work hard to keep classrooms stocked with supplies that kids might be missing, such as notebooks. The school supply donation takes a weight off their shoulders.

“I said to the teachers, don’t worry: [the supplies] are coming!” Principal Zlatkin said. “It makes a world of difference.”

More than 15 schools across Miami-Dade County benefited from this year’s Back-to-School Project, reaching over 8,500 students. Besides the Kiwanis of Little Havana Foundation and the Archdiocese of Miami, other sponsors included the Miami Marlins Foundation and numerous local public officials. The delivery truck and warehouse space for supplies were also donated.

At St. Mary’s Cathedral School, kids were all smiles as volunteers loaded their backpacks with crayons, notebooks, and more. One of the kindergarten students made it a point to say, “Thank you, God bless you!” to volunteers at each of the stations. Another student, a second-grader, skipped across the room to join her classmates, just as full of excitement as her backpack was full of new supplies.

“The goal here is to help the children start the school year excited and help them get off on the right foot,” said Raymond Sardiña, who has served as chair of the Back-to-School Project for over 15 years. “Being able to come with the support of the archdiocese to impact these children is really important to me.”

Sardiña is an alumnus of St. Michael the Archangel School, one of the three archdiocesan schools that received supplies this year. Reflecting on his time as a St. Michael student, he shared, “I’m very grateful to my parents for that: they only had a seventh-grade education. They sacrificed to make sure that I had God and prayer to start my day in school.”

Mel Carmona, one of the chairmen for the school distribution project, knows what it’s like to be transformed by the help of strangers. In 1962, at the age of 14, he was able to flee the societal turmoil in Cuba through Operation Pedro Pan, as one of over 14,000 unaccompanied children who started a new life in the U.S. through the Catholic Charities-backed program.

Now, he is paying it forward.

The Pedro Pan kids “got help with making it over to the United States and being taken care of while we were here without our parents.” The way Carmona sees it, the school distribution project “is a way to give back.”

 

Sending school supplies across the sea

This year, the Archdiocese of Miami is also collaborating with Kiwanis to launch another special endeavor: this time, helping kids across the ocean.

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This year was not the first time that the archdiocese and Kiwanis of Little Havana collaborated to bring supplies to students in South Florida. However, when Sardiña approached the archdiocese to consider renewing their collaboration for this year’s back-to-school drive, Archbishop Thomas Wenski also presented another idea.

“The archbishop said, is this something they could do for Haiti too?” said Katie Blanco Bourdeau, director of development for the Archdiocese of Miami.

This year marks the first time the Archdiocese of Miami and Kiwanis of Little Havana will be sending school supplies to Haiti, in collaboration with the Haitian Catholic bishops. The Archdiocese of Miami sponsored supplies for 2,000 students in Haiti, which will be sent for the start of their school year in October.

Haitian students’ back-to-school wish list looks different: they also need backpacks in addition to supplies like loose-leaf paper.

“In Haiti, the backpack is probably the most essential thing,” said Bourdeau. “Access to those types of things in Haiti is very, very difficult.”

Every student will receive one large backpack, four packs of 100-sheet paper, two composition notebooks, two folders, crayons, pencils and a pencil sharpener, a ruler, and scissors. A final gift the Haitian kids will get to unpack comes from students at St. Mary’s Cathedral, St. Michael the Archangel, and St. James, who are penning notes in Haitian Creole.

The Archdiocese of Miami’s $15,000 in funding for the Haitian supplies came from a special collection that parishes began promoting at Confirmation Masses across South Florida two years ago. Known as the Haitian Confirmation Collection, Archdiocese of Miami religious education programs regularly ask families at Confirmation Masses to aid families in Haiti.

In the past, donations from the Haitian Confirmation Collection have helped raise money for a solar generator for a Port-au-Prince parish, aided a school in the Diocese of Les Cayes, and more.

“The need is real,” said Sardiña of the Haitian school supplies project. “The kids in Haiti are going to be starting off school on the right foot through the archdiocese’s support.”

Soon, 2,000 kids in Haiti will be able to go to school with full backpacks, just like the kids in Miami.

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To contribute to any of the Archdiocese of Miami's endeavors supporting Haiti, donate here and write "For Haiti" in the "Leave a comment" box.