Christian Service

50 Years of Service as Men for Others - Developing Compassionate Hearts

Since 1965 St. John’s Jesuit has taken an active role in doing Christian Service within the Toledo community with students volunteering in those early years at St. Mary’s and the Sunshine Children’s Home. Today, 50 years later, that legacy continues and has expanded to hundreds of organizations across the Toledo area and beyond.

St. John’s Jesuit is known for being the leader in developing service programs – Christmas on Campus, Easter on Campus, the Sweetheart Dance with a local elder center and the Labre Program that delivers a home-cooked dinner every Monday, 52 weeks a year to 75 adults and their families in the Toledo area.

St. John’s Jesuit is the only school day Christian Service Program where students help local  service organizations, elementary schools, hospitals and senior centers at the time the organizations need it most –during weekdays.

Over the years, service has expanded beyond Toledo. National outreach started in the early seventies with some students volunteering in Appalachia.  A more formal program started in 1994 and continues today with spring and summer programs.

Also in 1994, St. John’s Jesuit students explored an international component with two students working with a medical mission in the Dominican Republic.  That same summer St. John’s Jesuit students visited Guatemala. These events started a 20-year plus tradition of international service. St. John’s Jesuit was the first area school to offer an ongoing international service program where young men learn more about the world and themselves while serving others.

The summer of 2015, 39 students participated in three international trips to Panama, El Salvador and Guatemala doing everything from tutoring students, to building basketball courts -- doing whatever it takes to make life better for someone else.