Page 18 - PaduaMagazine_Winter2020

Bruins Give Back to the Community
During the 2018-2019 school year, Padua students performed over 13,000 hours of service to the surrounding communities. Students volunteered at nursing homes, food pantries, hunger centers, surrounding neighborhoods and area parishes. Many students begin their service over the summer. Through Padua’s Franciscan Service Program, students learn the value of helping out those who are unable to help themselves.
Several of our faculty and staff have been sharing the gift of Franciscan hospitality once a month when they serve dinner to Cleveland’s poor and homeless at St. Herman House.
17
Prayer Blanket Ministry
Padua teaches students to live in the spirit of St. Francis and St. Clare by reaching out to those in need. One of the ways our community serves others is through our Prayer Blanket
Ministry. Our former Campus Minister Dcn. Bob Grgic started Padua’s Prayer Blanket Ministry in 2007. When we learn a
student, parent, sibling, alumni or friend is ill, or in need of encouragement or strength, we pray for them and send them
a blanket. Every blanket is blessed and prayed over by our students and faculty. For more than a decade, our blankets have comforted hundreds of people all across the country
and the globe in their time of need or celebration. Blankets have been distributed for a variety of meaningful occasions:
births, deaths, illness, weddings, etc. It is an incredible ministry that continues to surround people with God’s
love. If you or someone you know who has a connection to the Padua community would like to request a
prayer blanket (at no cost), call or email prayerblanket@ paduafranciscan.com.