This past Saturday, the Junior League of Chicago joined the Big Shoulders Fund and its Auxiliary Board for a Give Back Day at Holy Angels School.

Founded in 1986 the Big Shoulders Fund provides financial support such as books, scholarships, volunteer hours, and other educational assistance to low-income Catholic schools throughout Chicago. Its Auxiliary Board who helped organize the event consists of more than 150 volunteers who provide approximately 3000 hours of service to schools each year. Throughout the year Big Shoulders Fund hosts numerous Give Back Days at partner schools.

Saturday’s Give Back Day took place at Holy Angels School in the Bronzeville neighborhood. Holy Angels, which has served the community for over 100 years, recently combined with the St. Elizabeth School for the 2015-16 school year. It now hosts 11 faculty members and 175 students, most of whom are there on scholarship. With the aid of the Big Shoulders Fund they provide a rigorous curriculum and a variety of extracurricular activities for their students.

While on campus JLC members helped to organize and “deep clean” various offices, hallways and classrooms. Other volunteers painted, updated chalkboards, and moved furniture. With an excellent turnout of volunteers, we were able to clean beyond our designated spaces and take on extra projects! It was a great way to spend time with fellow members getting to know each other, while giving back to the community.

For more information on the Big Shoulders Fund please visit their website www.bigshouldersfund.org.

By Kaitlin Hasenbeck-Meyer, Published February 23, 2016