Elementary-school-age kids wearing Catholic school uniforms have been hitting up Country Club Plaza visitors for donations. Cynics may be wondering: Are the children filled with genuine school spirit, or did a deadbeat with a lot of kids devise an awesome panhandling scam?
Alas, the children attend a real school: St. Vincent de Paul Academy, which is near 31st and the Paseo.
The students are raising money for their school’s annual jog-a-thon. This year’s event is tentatively scheduled for Thursday at Southeast High School. The children have an hour to run as many laps around a track as they can. “Some of them do amazingly well,” school administrator Jenny Hollinger says. “But they’re young.”
The jog-a-thon is the students’ principal fund-raising activity. In the spring, the adults manage an auction and dinner.
St. Vincent de Paul may sound obscure even to Catholics. The reason is, it is not a part of the diocese. The school and neighboring church of the same name are affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X, a schismatic conservative movement that split with Rome around the time of Vatican II.
The academy has 109 students, according to Hollinger, who is the assistant principal of a new girls-only school for ninth and 10th graders.
The Plaza is the base of operation for some of the city’s most notorius panhandlers. But Hollinger says she hasn’t heard any complaints about the schoolkids sharing sidewalk with the likes of Jerry Mazer, he of the perpetual quest for a down payment on a cheeseburger. Last weekend, a handful of St. Vincent de Paul students raised money on the Plaza under the supervision of Caroline Awerkamp, a third-grade teacher at the academy.
Hollinger suggests that children asking Plaza goers for money is really no different than a trash-bag or candy-bar sale drive. “I don’t think that that would be a foreign sight to Kansas Citians,” she says. – David Martin
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I do not see the difference between these kids and kids who sell candy or fundrasiers for their schools.
You will give up money for sugar, or something that will break in a matter of months. These kids are raising money for their school. They shouldn't have to bribe you into buying something that you would probably never use anyway.
It is sad to see these kids compared to beggers...and also to see the church's name downgraded. So just because they go to this school doesn't give them the right to do what every other school kid does? At least they aren't trying to sell the most items to win a prize they are doing it for their school and church and no one else
Why does St. Vincent de Paul Academy (and the SSPX) get labeled "schismatic"? Does the academy belonging to Greek Orthodox get labeled as "schismatic"? How about the First Baptist Church as "heretical"? Who makes such a call at the paper and what litmus test is used to determine what status a particular group has (the local Catholic diocese)? Was this fair journalism (my answer is a resounding "NO")?
By the way, the SSPX was canonically approved BY THE VATICAN on November 1, 1970 *after* Vatican II (which ended in 1965), nor is the SSPX schismatic. If we deny this charge as being false, shouldn't the journalist in question take note of this?
Ryan,
Of course David is biased against the SSPX. Unfortunately, he will likely be eating these words once the society becomes regularized. If he had done his homework, he would know that there is no official schism between the society and Rome.
Just the same old propaganda. I hope the kids at this school receive more donations as a response to this article.
we used to sell candy when i was a kid. it's like these days they can't even do that. they just want a handout.
I'd rather be personally panhandled by a student legitimately raising money for their school, rather than receiving an e-mail with a link to a website where I can do my shopping to benefit some school's playground equipment fund, which is all I get anymore.
David,
I do not understand what your article was going after? Are you against children raising money or just against SSPX school kids raising money? It sounds like the later, doesn't most every school on the planet raises money in one way or another. When I went to public school I had to do the very same thing. Why can't they?
Yeah, it has become commonplace to see kids begging. But that doesn't make it right. Why is it we can't walk into a store these days without some kid asking for money for something? Do we really want to teach our children that you can get money by doing next to nothing? Apparenty, yes.
What a mean-spirited tone this article has! Is it now considered 'fair game' to pick on 3rd graders?
Kids raising money through these types of fund-raisers is commonplace. Where has Mr. Martin been all these years?
Why doesn't he call attention to something egregious - such as kids from PUBLIC schools selling trinkets or candy at gigantically marked-up prices to further inflate the bloated public school budgets?
As your pennance, Mr. Martin, you should sponsor one of the runners.
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