BUILDING BLESSINGS FOR THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF LANCASTER Blessing Boxes have been popping up all over the country for
Lancaster. That’s when she reached out to Willow Valley
years. A Blessing Box is a small, often homemade structure
Communities and our North community woodshop. Would
in which people leave donated goods for others to pick up
they be willing, she asked, to construct Blessing Boxes that
anonymously. Typically located in a common area, people fill
could be distributed throughout the district?
them with items that will help those in need, such as clothing, shoes, gloves, nonperishable food, toiletries, or other necessities.
The answer, of course, was a resounding “Yes!” and the members of the North Woodshop quickly got to work. Willow
Lancaster-area resident Jessica Pavelko loved the idea
Valley Communities resident and North Woodshop vice
of Blessing Boxes for the students of the School District
chairman Bob Goodhart coordinated the effort along with
of Lancaster. Her husband, Matt, is a music teacher at
fellow resident woodshop member Jim Hockenberry, who
Carter and MacRae Elementary School in Lancaster city,
really spearheaded the logistics of the building project. The
and she saw a definite need for some basic items for the
other resident members of the woodshop worked together
schoolchildren there. However, she passionately believed
to complete 16 boxes that are being distributed throughout
that it would not be enough to simply bless a student with
the schools.
a new coat or new school supplies. Rather, in her eyes, it would be just as important to also bless that student with
Willow Valley Communities covered the cost of the building
the opportunity to give to someone else in need. This is what
supplies. In addition to items like clothing, school supplies,
she wanted for the children her husband teaches, and also
and toiletries, handwritten notes of love and encouragement
for students in other schools within the School District of
are also included in the boxes for children to take.
18
WILLOW
Spring 2020
