A consistent tradition here at Dowling Catholic is Christmas Baskets, which ends with Candlelighting. Christmas Baskets is a homeroom project led by groups of seniors, each year with the goal to provide a “Merrier Christmas” to people. Seniors pick their groups, receive a family who they will meet with to learn their needs, and will explain to their homeroom about their family’s needs and wants. This year the senior class was able to help 107 families. 

Each student at Molten received a gift from the Dowling faculty, staff, and administration. The Dowling Community Raised a total of $47,457 with $16,010 coming from the Dowling staff. Along with donations to get a gift for every student at Molten, teachers helped facilitate their own homeroom, donated money to their homeroom, and donated gifts to their homeroom. Teachers put in tons of work outside of just being a teacher and they deserve credit for all the work they do to help make sure Christmas Baskets goes as well as it does. They watch all the presents flow in, they watch their homeroom step up to donate, see how generous they are, and help the seniors if they are stuck. Thank you teachers for all the work that you do. The Dowling Catholic Community is so appreciative of all of you, we can’t thank you enough!

The teachers appreciate everything us, seniors, do to make this successful. They get to hear our fun stories, watch us step up into a leadership role, watch us grow from our freshman year selves, listen to our discussions about our families, growth in our confidence, and growth in our character. Thank you seniors for helping to create a “Merrier Christmas” to the families. I had the chance to discuss what Christmas Baskets meant to some of the senior class, if they had a good or bad experience, and what their favorite memory was. 

Owen Nigg enjoyed planning and helping to create a good Christmas for his family. He wished that he understood this better when he was a Freshman, but he enjoyed this experience. 

Clare Leto had a different experience as her family took a ton of time to answer, so her group struggled to provide information to her homeroom. 

Quentin Steinbach loved getting to engage with his friends in a different way by serving the community. 

Tessa Potthoff enjoyed getting to see the little kids’ faces when they delivered their gifts. She wishes that the parents expressed their needs more as she knew they deserved more than what they got. 

Juan Reveles-Paz enjoyed getting together with friends to help, but he wished he could have helped out more than he did. 

Sadie Reinhardt loved getting to see the families reactions after they received their gifts. 

Ben Hall loved getting to wrap the presents and hang out as a group, but he wishes he could have seen the families reactions to the gifts.

Anna Rauen enjoyed getting to be a part of the group that drops off the students’ gifts at Molten from Dowling Catholic teachers.

Will Sweers loved getting to deliver the presents and seeing the joy on the family’s face, but he wishes that the timeline was explained better to the homeroom.  

Alexa Frye enjoyed getting to visit the families and seeing their reactions, but she wishes her homeroom was more involved.

Angelica Snyder, a current Junior, is excited to work with her friends, helping the families, and working with her homeroom. Using the advice from the seniors, she hopes can communicate well with the family and her homeroom.