![Season of Commitment: Sharing Messages of Hope]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1653587017/oregon/tr7indkuhqaqimmemsx1/sacklunchdrivedecoratedbagsthumbnail.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1653587017/oregon/tr7indkuhqaqimmemsx1/sacklunchdrivedecoratedbagsthumbnail.png","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_3/v1653587017/oregon/tr7indkuhqaqimmemsx1/sacklunchdrivedecoratedbagsthumbnail.png","width":800},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_4/v1653587017/oregon/tr7indkuhqaqimmemsx1/sacklunchdrivedecoratedbagsthumbnail.png","width":1200},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1653587017/oregon/tr7indkuhqaqimmemsx1/sacklunchdrivedecoratedbagsthumbnail.png","width":1600}])
Contributed by Middle School Chaplain Melissa Robinson
During our OES Season of Commitment, the Middle School has committed to supporting our close partner Blanchet House by providing 250 sack lunches during May and June. Our Middle School families have signed up to make and donate all of these sack lunches, which Blanchet House then distributes to our most vulnerable neighbors.
Blanchet House has been offering food, shelter, and aid to our most vulnerable community members for almost 70 years. During these challenging times, Blanchet House continues to do so while upholding the dignity and maintaining the health and safety of every person they serve, and it's our privilege to support the amazing work that they do.
As part of our sack lunch drive, each student and teacher in the Middle School spent part of this year’s Mount Hood Climb Observance Day decorating sack lunch bags with messages of hope, peace, love, and care. Although decorating a lunch bag may seem like a simple gesture, as one of our Middle School teachers, Bradi Ross, reminded her students recently, having something beautiful to look at and hold during one’s day is not something to be taken lightly. Instead, offering beauty to another person and receiving something beautiful and handmade holds deep meaning. A simple yet beautiful sack lunch may be the needed reminder in someone’s life that they matter and that they are loved.
We hope that our commitment to nourishing our neighbors in body and spirit ignites additional commitments toward love and justice in the weeks, months, and years to come.