Providence, RI – La Salle Academy’s Pro-Life group each year sponsors the “Giving Umbrella” Project which ran for 2 weeks ending on Wednesday, 21 October. It was started years ago as a variation on a baby shower (hence the umbrella). Hanging from the umbrella this year were 297 tags each with items for a child in need. Many mothers and fathers in Rhode Island struggle to care for their babies, lacking basic resources needed for their lives that others take for granted. Members of the whole La Salle community simply take a tag they want and then purchase the item and bring it to school for the Pro-Life group to deliver. Requests are for anything from toddler undershirts to a double stroller. One family just needed food. Our Lasallian community responded this year overwhelmingly in their support! The agencies serviced are from three towns that have social workers with clients who require resources for their babies plus the RI Right to Life office, which gives needed items for newborns, and the Mother of Life Center in Providence, which offers free ultrasounds for women who are unsure if they wish to keep their baby. Out of the hundreds of ultrasounds which were given, only one mother went away sad. The rest all kept their babies and the Center gives them resources, child care lessons and support. La Salle Academy’s Pro-Life student group, under the direction of teachers Mary Misiaszek and Leslie Martinelli, lovingly sorts and delivers all of the gifts to the agencies.
