With the Lasallian virtue of serving the less fortunate in mind, a group of CBA students and teachers made their annual October trip to the De La Salle Blackfeet School near Browning, Montana last week.

Browning is the capital of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, home to 12,000 Blackfeet. The current community contains chronic unemployment, welfare dependency, poor housing, domestic violence, and addiction.

Led by faculty members Mr. Tim Sewnig and Mr. Matt Wester, 12 Academy men traveled to Montana to spend a week at the fourth through eighth grade school, working with the students and reflecting on their lives back in Lincroft.

After arriving to a 48-inch snowstorm and missing a day of work in the school, the CBA volunteers were hands-on in the classroom with the children each day, being assigned to various grade levels to serve as mentors and tutors. The children at the school experience an extended school day from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., since their at-home living conditions are often below average.

“Working with the school children is a completely separate, but even more important experience than the trip itself,” junior Andrew Guarino said. “It really hurt to hear about the situations these kids have to go home to every day. However, they still showed up with smiles on their faces, and the families we saw at a school fundraiser were very kind. This, more than anything, taught me about how people can suffer in silence. With a quick look, you wouldn’t notice how much has gone wrong for these kids.”

After arriving to a 48-inch snowstorm and missing a day of work in the school, the CBA volunteers were hands-on in the classroom with the children each day, being assigned to various grade levels to serve as mentors and tutors. The children at the school experience an extended school day from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., since their at-home living conditions are often below average.

“Working with the school children is a completely separate, but even more important experience than the trip itself,” junior Andrew Guarino said. “It really hurt to hear about the situations these kids have to go home to every day. However, they still showed up with smiles on their faces, and the families we saw at a school fundraiser were very kind. This, more than anything, taught me about how people can suffer in silence. With a quick look, you wouldn’t notice how much has gone wrong for these kids.”