Backpack-packing, a "joyful noise," and more

Nick Pizzurro may be a rising senior at Raleigh’s Cardinal Gibbons High School, but he’s got elementary school kids on his mind right now.  At least 100 of them.  That’s how many he wants to see supplied with backpacks filled with classroom items to prepare them for the coming school year.  Nick is coordinating the backpack project with the Brown Bag Ministry, which helps meet the needs of the underprivileged. 

“100 backpacks is my goal,” he told me.  “Going into the second weekend I already have 46 backpacks, and I feel that’s pretty good.”

The 17-year-old is collecting the materials at his Apex parish, St. Andrew the Apostle Roman Catholic Church.  Not only will the loaded backpacks help the kids who receive them, the project will also help Nick in his goal of becoming an Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts of America.  “I really knew I wanted my project to be a service project that helps people,” he says.

Nick has volunteered for Brown Bag Ministry before, but never on this scale.  And although making Eagle Scout would be fantastic, he says he has an even greater motivation for the project: 

“Knowing that this is for my God, that’s really, really the biggest aspect.  The biggest motivator for this project was my faith in Christ.”

If you’d like to help Nick out, you can drop off your items before or after any of the Masses this weekend at St. Andrew’s.

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It’s a big weekend at the Shaw University Divinity School, where hundreds of church leaders, members, and young people will gather tonight and Saturday.  First, the school’s second annual Gospel Music Festival takes place tonight at 7:00.  And if it’s anything like last year’s, expect a great night of “joyful noise.”  The event is free and open to the public.

Then tomorrow, Shaw’s 73^rd annual Church Leadership Conference takes place.  The theme of the day-long conference is Transparency and Integrity in the Church, with eight workshop sessions planned.  Simultaneously, a youth seminar is also scheduled, tackling issues like peer pressure and gang violence.  

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The Islamic Association of Raleigh is inviting all local Muslims to attend a Community Picnic this Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  The event will take place at the Falls Lake Recreation Area/Beaver Dam.  There’ll be sports and activities for all ages, along with a free lunch served from 11 to 2.  

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A local rabbi and imam’s “modest peace plan” has gotten national attention.  The Jewish and Muslim religious leaders, both chaplains at Duke Divinity School, meet regularly and encourage their respective students to do the same.  The two men wrote about it in a recent op-ed piece in the Washington Post, which you can find reprinted here.

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Just in time for Independence Day, a coalition of North Carolina atheists and secular humanists has launched an effort to separate patriotism from piety.  Their new billboard campaign displays the words “One nation indivisible,” but deliberately leaves out “under God.”  Raleigh is one of several locations in the state where the billboard is on display (you can see it on Capital Boulevard just north of Trawick Road).  Another sign, ironically, overlooks the Billy Graham Parkway in Charlotte.

Comments

[Menelok]

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