Mission Drive 2019

Jesuit High School's 2019 Mission Drive launched this week, with director of community service Andy Wood '92 challenging the student body to "champion others who so desperately need our help."

At Convocation on Monday (April 1), Wood also announced the beneficiary of this year's drive: an elementary school in Belize, St. John's Roman Catholic School in Indian Creek, where Justin Kelley, n.S.J., a 2014 Jesuit graduate, and Fr. Penn Dawson, S.J., a member of Jesuit's Board of Trustees, currently serve. (Kelley is pictured on the homepage with students at the school; see more photos below.)

For the past eight years, St. John's has been plagued by health issues due to mold, as well as structural damage to the roof, and is in dire need of money to fix these severe problems. The Mission Drive generates funds through homeroom donations collected on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout April, and via small fees associated with the games, activities, and food sales of Mission Drive Day at the end of the month.

Jesuit's annual Mission Drive is an extraordinary tradition that dates back to the 1930s and supports people in need, consistently raising $10,000 or more annually. In recent years Mission Drive funds have helped to educate children in Colombia displaced by violent conflict (2018); assisted the children of impoverished Belle Glade, Florida and their local parish, St. Philip Benizi (2017); helped provide a chapel for the Matagalpa, Nicaragua prison, operate the local youth center there (La Casita), and send six Matagalpan youths to World Youth Day in Poland (2016); and supported The Lord's Ranch outreach ministry in El Paso, Texas (2015).

Mission Drive 2019 culminates with Mission Drive Day on April 26. As always, the day begins with an all-school music concert led by music director Nina Wegmann and choral and band director Dominick DiCarlo, followed by an array of fundraising activities throughout campus, including video games, bocce, ultimate frisbee, trivia, basketball, and much more.

See photos below of St. John's Roman Catholic School in Indian Creek, Belize.