PROVIDENCE – The freshman class of Bishop Hendricken High School recently learned how to make a positive difference in the community using an abundant supply of elbow grease and a truckload of rakes, shovels and paint brushes.
The 275 member group spent All Souls’ Day cleaning the historic St. Patrick Cemetery on Douglas Avenue. Instead of attending classes wearing ties and jackets, the young men spent a day outside in brisk weather clad in jeans and sweatshirts.
The students were accompanied by 35 teachers and administrators, as well as several members of the senior class who serve as peer ministers at the Warwick school, assisting underclassmen in service programs and helping to conduct retreats.
School Chaplain Father David Gaffney offered prayers at the cemetery during a lunchtime break and celebrated Mass for the group when they returned to the school.
The massive cemetery cleanup project was initiated last year and has become an annual school event. In recent years, the burial ground has been plagued by vandals, who have littered the cemetery and damaged headstones.
“The project was so successful that we decided to repeat it,” noted Thomas Gambardella, Director of Christian Service Programs at the high school.
Gambardella said that school administrators planned the service project to coincide with All Souls’ Day, since one of the corporal works of mercy is to tend to the care of the dead.
He noted that Bishop Thomas J. Tobin had given the students a pep talk the previous day, when he visited the school to celebrate Mass on All Saints’ Day.
Gambardella said that while a few students were initially apprehensive about tackling the project, once they arrived on site and saw that they could make a significant difference in rehabilitating the large property, they cast their doubts aside, donned work gloves and got to work.
“Their eyes are really open to the good work that they are doing,” he said proudly.
“It’s a great opportunity for the boys to practice what we preach,” said school President Christian Brother Thomas Leto, who explained that one of the foundations of the Christian Brothers’ mission is to provide service to the community. He added that the cemetery cleanup also offered the students a connection to the past, since many of the headstones found in St. Patrick’s date back to the 1800s.
“They are not only talking the talk, they are walking the walk,” he added, as he watched groups of young men moving fallen tree limbs, picking up trash, righting toppled markers and painting wrought iron fences.
One of the highlights of the cleanup day occurred when Ursuline Sister Ellen Donnelly of Providence discovered her great-grandparents’ grave with the help of an eager group of students. The young men had heard Sister Donnelly speak at an assembly the previous day and helped her to find the stone marking the burial site of her ancestors Patrick Donnelly and Sarah Goodwin. The couple, who emigrated from Ireland in 1850, is buried with several of their children.
Sister Donnelly said her great-grandparents worshipped at the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul, and lived at the corner of Spruce and Dean streets. The religious sister, who has conducted extensive genealogical research on her family, showed the students a receipt, dated December 14, 1865 that her great-grandmother received for the burial plot.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said of the young men’s discovery. “Just to find them on All Souls’ Day is of great significance.”
She added that the cemetery cleanup not only provided the students with a strong connection to the community, but also presented them with an opportunity to pray for those who have passed.
“I think it’s a good experience because we are helping people who are deceased,” said Bishop Hendricken student Robert Alves of Warwick.
His classmate, Jay Mitchell of Newport, agreed.
“I’m trying to help out and clean up,” he noted, adding that he works in the parish soup kitchen and serves on the altar at St. Columba’s Chapel in Middletown, where his family attends services.
