Saint André Bassette is an integral part of the Congregation of Holy Cross and Cathedral. Bassette is most commonly known for holding doors. Although that may seem so simple, he devoted much of his time to helping the less fortunate, sick, and suffering. 

His impact left a mark so big that now at Cathedral, we strive and serve others like he did. What once were service hours have now pivoted to a service project that is named after the one and only Andre Bassette. 

Andre Projects are service projects put together by juniors that typically align with something they are passionate about. The goal of these projects is to help serve the school and/or outside communities. As these juniors put together their projects together they have the opportunity to get underclassmen involved in their project.

On Friday Feb. 9 the service fair will be held in the Mimms and the WAC to allow the juniors to get student involvement and help with their projects.

Religion Teacher Mr. Cole Hepp said, “The saint Andre project service fair is a yearly gathering where the juniors have built trifolds with their Saint Andre Project idea that they have been working on over the course of the first semester in Catholic Social Teaching. All 300 or so of these juniors will put up their posters for the freshmen and sophomores to come to look. It lets them scan QR codes, sign up with projects, and maybe start dreaming up their own projects for the following year.”

After the first year of these projects, they have become a very important part of service learning on the Hill. “I think tying it into the mission of the St. Andre Project, which is to connect your passions and your skills with the needs of the community, I think this is that first glimpse, especially for the underclassmen to see the creative ideas that are out there but the impactful ideas that students are coming up with,” said Hepp. 

Allowing exposure to these projects helps build the impact they have on the community, especially the students. The service fair will start with an intro to the projects.

Hepp said, “They’ll have pretty much the entire activity period to go around and look at all the projects, but during that time, they’re going to fill out a card (and) they’re going to vote on the most creative project, the most impactful project, and the best project name, just to have them really engage with the fair.”