Christmas elves

By Joe Sarnicola / Special to The Citizen

Friday, December 5, 2008 11:56 PM EST

A van full of students from Tyburn Academy in Auburn gave up part of a weekend to help a needy community in Buffalo. On the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving, 17 students, accompanied by Mary Schultz, a teacher at Tyburn, headed out at 8 a.m. in a light snow storm and onto the Thruway.
Sam Tenney / The Citizen

Tyburn Academy students volunteered at St. Luke's Mission of Mercy last month in Buffalo. They helped to organize toy donations for children in need.
“When we got to Buffalo,” Schultz said, “we found blue skies and no snow.”

Their destination was St. Luke's Mission of Mercy, in a very underprivileged section of the city. The mission is operated by its co-founders with the help of 15 full-time lay missionaries and many volunteers. It receives no financial support from either the government or the Diocese of Buffalo, but relies entirely on donations from individuals and businesses.

The mission works throughout the year to carry out the Corporal Works of Mercy, such as feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless, and the Spiritual Works of Mercy, such as comforting the sorrowful and forgiving offenses.

They serve their community in many ways. The Tyburn students drove up to be part of the mission's annual Thanksgiving preparation.

Tyburn's association with St. Luke's Mission began because of the efforts of Mary Beth Lalka, who was a former teacher at Tyburn, and who was from Buffalo. The November trip has become an annual event.

“The students look forward to participate in this,” said Mary Schultz. “We have students from 16 different school districts here. The region is well represented. We went to a community center that had once been a Catholic school, and we put toys and gifts in packages for neighborhood children. We put together three or four rooms of toys, clothes and books. We were Christmas elves.”

The students, who went on the trip, had to make a donation for gas and pay for their own lunch and dinner. After they had lunch, they visited the Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Buffalo. This beautiful church was built in 1921 by the Rev. Nelson Baker, who paid for it by soliciting donations from people who shared his vision. Four years later, the church was completed and completely paid for.

The Tyburn students enjoyed a tour of the church and stayed for a Saturday evening Mass. After that, a trip to Niagara Falls was kept short because of the cold night temperatures.

Tyburn Academy recently added a middle school, with sixth, seventh and eighth grades, to the high school, using what was originally St. Mary's School on Clymer Street.

The school opened in 1993, under the direction of the late Father Albert M. Shamon. The school's mission statement says that “Tyburn strives for excellence in learning to prepare students for higher education and for living their faith.”

The name of the school was taken to honor more than 100 English and Irish martyrs who sacrificed their lives at the Tyburn Crossroads in London in the 16th century.

In order to help to keep tuition to the school low, and therefore allowing more students to be able to receive an education there, Tyburn Academy is holding a raffle for either a fully loaded 2008 Corvette Coupe or $40,000 cash. The drawing will be held Dec. 20. Tickets are $20 each, three for $50, seven for $100 or 80 for $1,000.

They are available from staff and students or by contacting the school at 252-2937 or e-mailing info@tyburnacademy.com.

The Citizens' Say

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There are 2 comment(s)

Barbara wrote on Dec 9, 2008 1:44 PM:

" In reply to Teacher1-I am a teacher at Tyburn who has accompanied the students for the last four years; we have discussed your question. If you note, the annual trip is a full day, not only to work at the mission in Buffalo, but to take the students to Niagara Falls (where many including our exchange students had never been)& tour and attend mass at the Basilica. It is also our feeling that working at St. Luke's-which is in the area of Buffalo where the students get a look first-hand at extreme poverty on a large scale-makes a much bigger impact on them as compared to what they might see in Auburn. In addition, they get the chance to work alongside hundreds of other Catholic school students from Western NY who also work at the mission on that day. All students at Tyburn must log a minimum of 20 hours of community service each year; most of them surpass 100 hours, and many reach 2-400, doing a variety of service projects locally. I hope this clarifies the reason for traveling so far. Thanks for your input. "

teacher1 wrote on Dec 6, 2008 3:51 PM:

" This is an incredible story and gives me faith and hope that there are still decent kids in this world. I'd be honored if my child, when he is of school age, has the opportunity to attend this fine school. BUT...I have to say this, and it hopefully will not detract from the good these kids are doing, but aren't there plenty of needy people in Cayuga County? Why go all the way to Buffalo? Just curious. "

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