Wyoming Area Catholic students, left to right: Grace Kelly, grade 7, Chloé Kelly, grade 5, center, and Gino Pisano, grade 8, load boxes of nonperishable food designated for the school’s Blessing Box to be placed at th parking lot located on Wyoming Ave.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
A Blessing Box, initiated by the Wyoming Area Catholic School, Wyoming Ave., Exeter, will be placed outside the school for people to take nonperishable groceries as well as place donate nonperishables back in the box. The box was created by Garage on Broad St., Pittston.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
The plaque at the top of the Blessing Box was done by Michelle Rusnock of Garage on Broad, Pittston.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Michelle Rusnock, left, and Derrick Klinefelter, right, of Garage on Broad, Pittston, built and donated the Wyoming Area Catholic Blessing Box, shown in the photo. The box will be placed in front of the school located at 1690 Wyoming Ave., Exeter, for people to donate nonperishable food as well as take food if needed. The project is spearheaded by the school’s Builder’s Club.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Wyoming Area Catholic fifth-grade student Chloé Kelly places Mac n’ Cheese in the box of food collected to be placed in the school’s Blessing Box.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
EXETER — It’s back. After six years away, the Blessing Box will, once again, be available to the public as project of the Builders Club at Wyoming Area Catholic School (WAC).
The Blessing Box, formerly known as the Giving Box, was placed at the Wyoming Free Library, is a place for people to donate nonperishable groceries to be placed in the box for those in need to take free.
The project will be monitored by the Builders Club to collect groceries and fill the box were all 43 students would be involved from grades five through eight.
“At the end of last year, I asked the club members if this was something they were interested in doing it again and they said yes,” Tiffany Callaio, WAC Builders Club advisor, said. “At our first meeting of the school year in September, they brought it up that they wanted to get started on it.”
Once the commitment was agreed upon, the next step was to secure someone to build and donate the box. Michelle Rusnock and Derrick Klinefelter, whose daughter Lilyana is a fourth grade student at WAC, took on the project.
“We saw the post online where Ms. Callaio was asking if anyone would volunteer and we stepped up,” Klinefelter said. “We have a woodworking shop in Wyoming, so we do woodworking already, and we have a garage (Garage on Broad) in Pittston so we spent three of four weekends building it.”
Rusnock created the engraved plate adorning the front of the box. The duo will complete the box and install it at the end of the school’s parking lot on Wyoming Ave.
“This is an honor system and anyone that is in need of non-perishable food items or personal care items may take from the Blessing Box and anyone in the community can donate to it as well,” Callaio reiterated.
“I like it and it’s helping the community and it makes me feel happy,” WAC fifth grade student and Builders Club member, Clhoé Kelly, said. “I asked some of my neighbors if they could donate and drop it off at my house. So far, we collected cereal, pastas, and hygiene products.”
