The SVDP Youth Society of Saint Patrick’s was established three years ago under the faithful leadership of Barbara Hooper whom provided our youth the opportunity to grow spiritually and perform charitable acts of service in their community.

With very limited financial resources but a growing desire to serve those in need, we needed to get creative. Through some divine intervention and one Mom’s unwillingness to throw anything away that may have functional value, our Cans of Kindness were formed. Over the course of a couple years I had accumulated two garbage bags of used plastic coffee and creamer containers that had taken up occupancy in my basement. I occasionally used a container to store various items around my home and continued to maintain grandiose ideas of how I would eventually put them all to purposeful use. As my daughters, Annaleigh and Chesny, and I were in our basement one day performing some very much needed organization, a thought filled our heads, “Would these not be the perfect containers to store items in if you were in a homeless situation or if all the things you owned must be able to fit in a backpack?”.

We presented our idea to Mrs. Barbara and the other members and the spirit of charity was overwhelming in their response. Through a generous initial donation from our own SVDP Society fund to purchase items to items our Youth members/families donated and people of the parish donated, our idea for Cans of Kindness blossomed into an