Prep Talk

Student Caritas Project Helps to Teach English to Migrant Workers

Posted July 20th, 2015

From May to early this month, Brendan Honick’s Caritas project focused on assisting the Haitian migrant workers who spend their days laboring outside in the blueberry fields in Hammonton. The project started with the goal of making Cool Ties (cotton neckerchiefs filled with a water absorbing polymer) and collecting baseball caps and towels, however, it also became a way of teaching them English.

Brendan held a series of baseball cap and towel drives not only on campus, but also at Assumption Regional Catholic School, Bacharach Institute for Rehabilitation, and the three churches of St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish (the Church of the Resurrection, St. Casimir Church, and Bishop McHugh Regional School). In total, he collected 850 baseball caps and 270 towels, helping to provide relief to the workers from hot, sunny days.

He sites Prep French teacher Mrs. Vermeeren along with Mrs. Dory Dickson, founder of the Haitian Migrant Worker Outreach Program, in being extraordinarily helpful over the duration of the project. Mrs. Vermeeren aided in making the cool ties, and Mrs. Dickson assisted with the distribution of donated goods.

On Tuesday, June 30, Brendan started assisting Mrs. Vermeeren with a series of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes being taught to the Haitian migrant workers at the Glossy Fruit Farms in Hammonton. At the end of the first class, Cool Ties were distributed to the students. The classes met every Tuesday and Thursday evening until Tuesday, July 14th. About 25 migrant workers would come to each class and on Tuesday, July 7th, Brendan distributed 328 baseball caps at the migrant worker dorms at the farm, receiving a multitude of “Thank Yous” in English, French, Spanish, and Haitian Creole.

Brendan says, “This Caritas project has been a truly worthwhile experience for me. I look forward to this rewarding project being carried out by members of future classes at the Prep.”