Partnerships and Service

Since 1979, St. Patrick’s has maintained a relationship with St. Etienne Church and School in Haiti. Across the decades, countless members of the St. Patrick’s community—parishioners, faculty and staff, parents, students, and alumni—have contributed to this partnership through visits, cultural exchanges, educational opportunities, and fund drives. Our Haiti partnership is one of our most cherished friendships and an integral part of our strategic work to make St. Patrick’s a more globally conscious community. While 13 Day School students have traveled to Haiti since 2016, when we resumed taking them to St. Etienne, more recent events have prevented both adult and student travel. We look forward to resuming trips to Haiti when that becomes possible. Students across every grade level are invited to participate in the Hoops for Haiti tournament, a fundraiser that supports our partnership with St. Etienne Church and School. 

The Salvation Army Grate Patrol is one of the hands-on ways that St. Patrick’s students, parents, and faculty and staff work in service to others. Each day of the year, the Salvation Army dispatches the Grate Patrol van, a mobile food service, to provide meals to the needy and homeless in our community. St. Patrick’s prepares food for and staffs that delivery service twice per month. PK3, PK4, and Kindergarten students prepare vegetables and make soup and trail mix to distribute, while older students make sandwiches or pack bags of snacks or toiletries. Day School families, along with faculty and staff volunteers, ride on the van to make the deliveries.

Since 2009, St. Patrick’s has partnered with Horizons Greater Washington (HGW), part of a national network that provides a summer-based intervention to help low-income students continue learning at a time when they might otherwise experience a decline in their academic development. Each summer, cohorts of students in rising Grades 1 through 9—from our D.C. Public Schools partners Bancroft Elementary in Mount Pleasant and corresponding middle schools—spend six weeks at the Day School engaged in a mix of academic and recreational activities, often under the instruction of St. Patrick’s teachers. Since the program began, dozens of St. Patrick’s alumni have served as Horizons Assistant Teachers, or HATs. Community members enjoy attending the Horizon 5K race and the Spring Splash Gala in support of Horizons.