Feast of St. Viator Celebrated through Inaugural Day of Service

Mission accomplished. 

Saint Viator students, faculty, and staff spread out across Chicagoland on Tuesday, putting their faith into action — and fittingly, on the Feast Day of St. Viator.

This inaugural Day of Service included volunteering with community partners such as Bernie’s Book Bank, Little Sisters of the Poor, House of Hope Resale, Little City, and Habitat for Humanity, to name a few. And all on the feast of St. Viator.

Others served on the school’s campus — making meals for the hungry, stuffing animals for local police and fire stations, and tending the Viatorian Giving Garden next door.

This day devoted entirely to service allowed Lions to live out their Viatorian mission, which is to discern who God calls them to be, discover what the world needs, and transform the communities they encounter through empathy, action, and inclusion.

“The Viatorian charism is so inseparably entwined with service that this feels like the most fitting way to celebrate St. Viator's feast day,” said President Ryan Aiello. “I hope our students and our faculty fully embraced this new tradition, where they learned to live their faith more deeply, more intentionally, and more positively.” 

Students were grouped with their homerooms and assigned to specific sites, ranging from those as close as Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect, and Palatine, to as far as Aurora, Lake Bluff, and the city of Chicago.

They traveled in both school buses and vans to all of the sites with their homeroom teachers and faculty members and showed up with an eagerness to serve.

“This world needs more of these kinds of kids,” declared Julie Kapustka, community outreach director for Lemons of Love in Mount Prospect, one of the designated work sites.

The mission of Lemons of Love is to share love with those impacted by cancer through personalized care packages, free programs, and ongoing support.

When Mrs. Rachel Mroz and her sophomore homeroom students arrived, they were greeted by Kapustka, who described the work of the organization and, in particular, its outreach to children dealing with cancer as well as those in hospital settings.

She pointed to supplies they would be filling in each child’s care package, including coloring books, crayons, superhero socks, and stuffed animals donated by Petco.

But first, she instructed them to take some sheets of paper and color them as a happy card for these young patients. She added they could write a note of encouragement and include their name and age on the back.

Hunter Lockefeer ’28 colored in a picture of a superhero before adding a note, ‘You got this,’ on his card. “I just want to make sure that kids having chemo get the motivation to keep up the fight,” he said.

At another site, the WINGS Logistics Center in Elk Grove Village, half of Mr. Matt Hynek’s junior homeroom rolled up their sleeves to work. Located in a small warehouse, these student volunteers helped sort through bags and bags of donated clothing intended for WINGS resale shops.

The mission of WINGS is to break the cycle of domestic violence by providing housing, integrated services, education, and advocacy to survivors.

While students said they were unaware of the pervasiveness of domestic violence, they were happy to help the organization.

“I’ve never really known much about domestic violence,” Colin Bird ’27 said.

His classmate, Declan McLeod ’27, nodded in agreement, but added: “It’s rewarding to help those who are experiencing domestic violence.”  

This inaugural Day of Service was organized by members of the Campus Ministry Department, including Mrs. Ann Perez, Vice President of Mission & Identity, and Mrs. Cathy Abrahamian. They both described this new tradition as a complete success.

“It was a wonderful experience for our students and for those who were served at all of our service sites,” Mrs. Perez said. “We love that as a school we could animate the mission of the Viatorians by living our faith and proclaiming Jesus Christ and the gospel to the greater community through service.”