On Monday April 19th, Gwynedd Mercy Academy’s mission week commenced, allowing students to participate in a variety of different service events. Along with these service events, students were further educated on this year’s critical concern of racism. All students deepened their individual understanding of the consequences of racism through reflection. 

On Tuesday April 20th, the monthly casserole program took place after school. Gwynedd students got the opportunity to prepare frozen vegetable casseroles to send to individuals and families at Saint John’s Hospice. The participants worked together in an assembly line and every person was assigned an individual task. The roles included spraying the tin foil pans, adding ingredients into a large bowl such as pasta, vegetables, sauce, cheese, and breadcrumbs, and packaging the casseroles. Altogether, the participants prepared over sixty frozen vegetable casseroles to send off to the Hospice.

After school on Wednesday April 21st, students reached out to the residents of Kyffin Grove Retirement Home through Zoom. Although in previous years students would visit the retirement home in person, the events with residents have taken place virtually due to the circumstances of the pandemic this year. For this month’s event, students had the opportunity to decorate flowerpots while speaking with the residents and getting to know them better.

During activity periods the week of the 19th, students listened to an informative podcast discussing the critical concern of racism. The engaging podcast told the story of June Provost, and the challenges he faced with his sugar cane business. The four main types of racial injustice (institutional, systematic, internalized, and interpersonal) were voiced and analyzed to a deeper extent to better each student’s understanding of the impacts of racism. Gabi Warner, a student of the class of 2022 voiced,

“I really enjoyed listening to the podcast during activity period. I learned about the effects of racism in the past and how my generation can prevent racism in the present.”

The week concluded with a liturgy, where the Gwynedd community gathered to celebrate a successful mission week. Overall, students got the opportunity to partake in different service events and spend time educating themselves on this year’s critical concern of racism.