Thanks to the hard work of Ethan Craft, a St. Gertrude parishioner and junior at St. Patrick’s High School, dozens of children in need will be a little warmer this winter.
Craft organized a winter clothing drive at his parish in December for Cradles to Crayons Chicago, a non-profit that provides essential items to children and families living in poverty. He collected over a dozen trash bags filled with coats, boots and other winter clothing from a box he put out in the back of the parish.
Craft also reached out to his grammar school alma mater Northside Catholic Academy for support from other alumni, parents and students.
As a member of the teen leadership corps for Cradles to Crayons, Craft knew he wanted to do something to help kids in need during the holiday season and started working on the clothing drive. His home parish was a natural partner.
“I figured there is no better place to put it than Gert’s.” said Craft, 17, after Mass on Jan. 4.
The drive netted more items than the teen anticipated, he said.
“I think all of the time how fortunate I am and I just want to give back to people who are less fortunate than me,” Craft said.
More teens can organize charitable efforts like the clothing drive, he said.
“It’s a just little bit of my time and now he [a child] gets a winter coat, or she gets a winter coat,” Craft said. “It’s such a minimal effort to have such a big impact on a bunch of people.”
St. Gertrude Parish, located at 1420 W. Granville Ave. in the city’s Edgewater neighborhood, has a strong social justice focus through ministries such as a medical equipment lending closet and a food pantry so at first the pastor thought the clothing drive might be one too many things for the parish.
“But then I thought, ‘This parish knows how to handle it,’” said Father Sergio Romo.
Craft is one of the parish’s “faithful servers,” the pastor said.
“He’s in high school and still serving so that says a lot. The fact that he wanted to take on this project I thought was really great,” Romo said.
Many young people have a passion for social justice issues and parishes can encourage that and use it as an opportunity to engage them on a faith level, Romo said.
“We need their youthful energy and their capacity to dream for a better world for us who have perhaps become a little too cynical,” he said.
Craft’s parents said they are proud of their son’s efforts to help those in need.
“I’m glad to see all of the years of the Catholic education and everything else, to see the impact that it has had on the kids makes me proud,” Jason Craft said.