Valentine's Day more than candy at St. Dominic School
BY DANIELLE MEDINA Correspondent

DANIELLE MEDINA On Valentine's Day, first-graders at St. Dominic School prepare to give Steve Brigham — a local minister who helps the homeless — gift boxes full of toiletries they collected and helped pay for.

BRICK TOWNSHIP — The first-graders at St. Dominic School celebrated Valentine's Day in all the traditional ways — exchanging cards and treats with their classmates and enjoying a class party.

But with their "Bundles of Love" — care packages filled with toiletries for local homeless people — they reached out and extended their love to those a lot less fortunate this past Valentine's Day.

"It's a very Christian thing to do, but it's also a very patriotic thing to make sure people have what they need," Assistant Principal Eileen Fagan said.

The school's 64 first-graders presented their "Bundles of Love" to Steve Brigham — a local minister who delivers food, clothing, tents, blankets and cans of propane to the homeless population in Ocean County — during a school-wide ceremony on Feb. 18.

The entire school also presented Brigham with a check for a $1,000, the proceeds from a dress-down day.

"The homeless are out there, living in cars and tents in the woods," Brigham told the children. "It's a very hard life. This money will go to feed them. Thank you."

The "Bundles of Love" idea was the brainchild of the school's two first-grade teachers, Kathi Gaspich and MaryRose Rybczynski.

"The children were encouraged to earn money to buy the toiletries by doing good deeds and chores at home," Rybczynski said.

After they earned the money, the firstgraders were encouraged to go to the store and pick out items — toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, deodorant, flashlights, batteries, blankets — that might make a homeless person's life easier.

They assembled their "Bundles of Love" at school in shoeboxes and tied them with red ribbon.

"They really got into it," Rybczynski said. "They really thought about what would make life a little better for someone else."

St. Dominic School Principal Carol Bathmann thanked Brigham during the ceremony for his work with the homeless.

"We always hear the phrase, 'What Would Jesus Do?' " Bathmann said. "Well, you're doing it. Thank you."