JUNE 2009 Edition  -  College Park's Community Paper
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ST. CHARLES SCHOOL NEWS - June 2009

Meredith Lilley Receives Disney Doer & Dreamer Award (click on picture to see separate article).


On March 6, 2009 according to Walt Disney World’s Public Affairs and Community Relations website: “Disney Parks worldwide are asking our guests, ‘What will you celebrate?’ Many people may wonder; however, what it is Walt Disney World is celebrating this year?  We are excited to celebrate young people, as Disney Dreamers and Doers, who are making a difference in our community through their volunteer service.”
    Meredith Lilley, a fifth-grader at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School, was named an elementary school “Dreamer and Doer” for her work on behalf of two Orlando families who were facing eviction and homelessness and for her volunteer efforts at Brothers’ Keeper food pantry. “Helping with your community or anywhere else really does help,” Meredith wrote in an essay.
    Meredith’s community service has been influenced by her family who places a high value on helping others who are less fortunate. Her entire family pitched in to help relocate families in crisis, delivering food, checking on their progress, and babysitting for the families with young children.

Natalia Rivera Honored as Walt Disney's "Shining Star" (click on picture to see separate article).


  A desire to help African children orphaned by war and disease inspired a St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School student to create a community service project that reached halfway around the world and recently earned the 8th-grader a significant award. Natalia Rivera was the only middle school student in all of Orange County’s public and private schools and one of only 15 elementary, middle and high school students in a five-county region to receive a Walt Disney World “Shining Star” award for making a difference in people’s lives. Each application for the “Shining Star” awards is reviewed by a panel of Central Florida leaders and Disney cast members, who select three exceptional students per grade level (elementary, middle and high school) from each of the Central Florida counties: Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk and Seminole. In 2009 Disney recognized 400 Central Florida students as “Dreamers and Doers” for their community service and singled out the top 15 as “Shining Stars.” A video of Disney’s “prize patrol” mission to St. Charles can be viewed at www.shineontoday.com.
    The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that orphans make up about 15 percent of the under-18 population in the Congo. UNICEF also estimates that 1.1 million people are living with HIV in the Congo and 770,000 children have been orphaned by the disease. Years of war and violence have also uprooted hundreds of thousands of Congolese who have fled massacres and reprisals from armed militia groups roaming the country. Orphans are left without the most basic necessities, and many children scrounge daily in the streets for food.
    Natalia first heard about the orphans in January 2007, when she attended a prayer meeting and heard Fr. Gabriel Ipasu, parochial vicar at Church of the Resurrection in Lakeland, talk about his dream to build an orphanage in the Congo. Later, “A respect-life seminar and prayer meeting called Suffering in Silence inspired me,” she said. “People of different religions gathered to call attention to children suffering on the other side of the world. These people put aside their differences to work for the orphans, the voiceless in the Congo, suffering from abuse, rape, kidnapping and homelessness.”  
    After hearing about the children’s plight, Natalia came up with an idea of how students at St. Charles could help, and she asked permission of the administration, to create the “A Kid for a Kid” project. “I have so much, and these children have so little,” Natalia said. “It felt sinful to think of complaining to my mother when the orphans don’t even have a mother. I go to bed safe and secure. The orphans huddle together wondering if they will eat tomorrow. I realize how fortunate we are. We have the ability to help the less fortunate. I was convinced that the students at St. Charles school could make a difference. It was then that the idea of raising money for the orphans came to me.”
    During the season of Lent, Catholics are encouraged to make sacrifices. So, for the past three seasons of Lent, Natalia has asked fellow students to give up some of their lunch and snack money toward “A Kid for a Kid”. Even the smallest of contributions can make a big difference. She also asked for donations from St. Charles families. The money collected would buy specific items or services through the Mercy for Children organization for the Congolese orphans, such as clean drinking water, bunk beds, food, medical supplies, clothing and construction of the orphanage. She has raised about $4,000 to benefit 57 orphans, ages 4-11. Natalia also helped to make cards from St. Charles students with greetings and prayers in French to send to the orphans.
    On May 7, Natalia, having been selected by her classmates at St. Charles School as May Queen, the 8th grade girl honored to place the crown of flowers on the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, participated, with the rest of the school, in the annual May Crowning of Ceremony. The St. Charles School Disney Doer & Dreamer winners were announced after the ceremony.
    A Disney bus arrived at St. Charles May 11, and a costumed Mickey Mouse surprised Natalia in her classroom with a bouquet of balloons, a cake and a trophy. The ceremony honored her work in creating “A Kid for a Kid” program to aid the orphanage in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She turned to her fellow classmates. “I couldn’t have done this without all of your help. You helped me make this happen,” she said. Her parents, grandparents, classmates and Orlando City Commissioner Robert Stewart watched as the Disney crew videotaped the celebration. 

Paul Kish, president, Rotary Club of College Park, and Mary Agnew, principal, St. Charles Borromeo School, present St. Charles student Haley Manchon with the Rotary Student of the Month award. (click here to see separate article.)