Article by Phoenix writer Victoria Vakser ’26:
For high school students across the country, the “season of giving” was taken to a new level. This year, twenty-four Catholic high schools participated in the annual Great Ignatian Challenge, including our very own Kellenberg Memorial.
For eight years, Great Ignatian Challenge (GIC) has been bringing Catholic schools together in friendly competition to collect food for those less fortunate. Inspired by St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Challenge was founded on the saint’s principle of love speaking louder in deeds than in words. The reflection of this principle in the participating high schools cannot be missed: Last year’s competition alone raised over 700,000 pounds of food, and the sum total of all the food collected since the start of the competition is over 2.2 million. This is the second year Kellenberg has been participating in the Challenge.
Mr. Finn is in charge of the GIC here at Kellenberg. He oversees the drop-off and pick-up of the food, the online donations from parents and alumni, and the deliveries to various food pantry locations. “We make a point of donating food, not just money for the food,” Mr. Finn claimed. “It makes the idea of helping one’s community a tangible thing.” To encourage students, paper leaves were handed out during lunch periods with suggestions for items to bring in, and the National Honor Society created a goal of collecting over 10,000 pounds of rice.
The collected food was delivered to a variety of different food pantries and organizations. “It’s really great that we’re doing something like this because it reaches so many people,” remarked Mr. Finn. “In parishes like St. Brigid’s, there are over 350 families who rely on the food pantry. Thanks to a generous donor, we are able to provide a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk for every single family in that parish for the next two months.”
“But it’s not only adult donors who get to participate,” he continued. “Here in the ARK we do what I like to call ‘heart work’… and our goal in the GIC is to teach students to give from the heart. The Challenge is a school-wide event— it relies on every student to contribute.” When asked what his biggest motivation is to continue the “heart work” for events like the GIC, Mr. Finn replied, “[It is s]eeing the joy on the faces of the recipients when we bring in the food.”
James Watkins was part of a group of juniors that helped deliver food to the Queen of Peace nursing home. After loading and unloading a busful of food items and meeting the Little Sisters of the Poor who run the nursing home, the boys went up to the chapel for a small prayer service. As James reflected, “Even though I’m not an adult, this experience helped me realize that I can still make an impact in other people’s lives.”
Another junior who participated, Daniel Meenan, commented, “I’m really glad I got this opportunity because I enjoyed being able to help those less fortunate than I. It made me feel like a better person.”
Thank you to all those who helped make the Great Ignatian Challenge such an incredible success!
