St. Paul’s carries on Blessing Bags tradition
NEW ULM — The students at St. Paul’s Lutheran School helped deliver Blessing Bags to area seniors Thursday.
Students assembled a total of 150 bags with items for elderly citizens who cannot readily leave their homes. The school teamed up with the Meals on Wheels program to deliver the bags. Students and volunteer parents would follow the Meals on Wheels vehicles from the community center and drop of one of the bags along with the meal.
St. Paul kindergarten teacher Beth Wolf said the Blessing Bag tradition is at least a decade old and began as an alternative to classroom gift exchanges.
Each Blessing Bag contains a variety of items, such as candy, stamps, soap, packaged snacks, soup, popcorn or fuzzy socks.
The entire school gets involved in the program, which includes the collection of donated items, sorting the items, decorating the bags and last the delivery of the Blessing Bags.
Wolf said each year they create 150 Blessing Bags. The remaining bags left over after the Meals on Wheels delivered are given out to other senior citizens in the community identified by the students, teacher or pastors.