Every year, students at Cathedral take a day of school and celebrate Christmas with students from the Enlace school. Every senior is randomly paired with a kid— girls with girls and boys with boys— and walks them around the school, stopping at different stations throughout the day to give the children a memorable Christmas experience.
The event took lots of preparation to get ready to make for a memorable day. Seniors sent their buddies a letter— receiving one in return— and then got their kids a book to gift to them when they met on the morning of Christmas on the Hill. The staff and students also helped to decorate the entire school with holiday themes. Some doors looked like presents and lights were strung across the ceilings.
The day started with an all-school Mass, followed by the seniors getting paired with their students. They then travelled to the baseball fields as Santa was arriving soon. The entire class was shocked, as Santa arrived in a helicopter. Many of the Enlace students ran after Santa, but soon dispersed into the school.
As the seniors and their buddies travelled through the school, they made stops to do face paint, make s’mores, play carnival games, and even decorate cookies. The kids were also served hot dogs for lunch.
This day is supposed to be memorable, as the Enlace kids “love it” and Cathedral wants to “put a smile on their faces”.
A Religion Educator, and main director of Christmas on The Hill, Mrs. Katie Lewis said, “We have these different core values here at Cathedral, and I think that those core values are highlighted really well. One being option for the poor and vulnerable and seeing what we can do to make these kids smile is one of the easiest things we can do”.
As the day came to an end, students and their buddies made their way to the gymnasium for closing ceremonies. Here, seniors gave their buddies their gifts and watched a video recap of the day.
There were lots of tears, smiles, laughter, and hugs shared throughout the group. After receiving gifts, the Enlace buddies performed dances and songs for the school. This led into a prayer and to close the ceremony, the seniors gave the Irish Blessing to the kids.
