It’s Christmas morning and you rush downstairs to see all the presents, neatly piled up beneath the tree. But not every family’s Christmas is the same. Not everyone gets to have a full spread of gifts, and as a Bishop Noll community, it’s the students’ job to adopt a family and give them the most memorable Christmas.

Every year, Bishop Noll adopts a family to help provide a meaningful and special Christmas. BNI, in particular, has been partnering with the Diocese of Gary Catholic Charities to  do this for the past 20 years. In addition to working with Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Gary, Bishop Noll’s campus ministry also partnered with St. Casimir and St. John Bosco this year in particular to provide Christmas presents to those families in need. 

“This year Bosco had one family for us to help, and we are going to give our all for that one family,” said Miss B. The number of families in need of Christmas assistance is always changing. At one point, BNI was servicing almost ten families, but with the change due to COVID the past two years, the number of families has gone down. 

“With the current pandemic situation, things have changed in a lot of ways that are out of our control,” said Miss B. Whatever family is chosen for BNI to provide for is picked at random and they are notified by either the parish or the Catholic Charities.

With BNI being involved with Adopt-A-Family for close to 20 years, the students as a community have learned a lot about charity. Especially with all that’s happened the past two years, compassion is greatly appreciated globally. Participating in our Bishop Noll Adopt-A-Family is a group effort.

“For some of us, that means participating in the Comfy Day on Monday, December 13, and donating money. For others, it means helping to purchase the presents and deliver them to Bosco on December 15,” said Miss B.