In what has become an annual tradition, Chaminade and Kellenberg Memorial High School students traded free time for community service during winter break.

​

St. Joseph’s Mission, now in its 13th year, took students to two homes in the Rockaways and Canarsie which were heavily damaged after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.  Students worked to rebuild homes through mold remediation, painting, and other projects. 

​

The destruction from another devastating storm inspired the first St. Joseph’s Mission in 2005.  After Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, Chaminade students traveled to St. Stanislaus College, a Catholic day and boarding school in Bay St. Louis, Miss.  Storm surge from the gulf brought water nearly to the school’s 2nd floor.  Students returned to the school for several years during Presidents Week.  Violet, La. also served as a base for volunteer activities in Greater New Orleans.  Chaminade men would stay at a home refurbished for out-of-town workers while going out into the community each day.  The St. Bernard Project, named for a parish (a municipality similar to a county) in southeastern Louisiana, coordinated the deployment of volunteers to homes.

​

Friends of Rockaway, a local division of the St. Bernard Project, connected Chaminade students to homes for this year’s St. Joseph’s Mission.