St. Mary’s School in Old Forge, PA, is a small Catholic neighborhood school with a student population of 156, Grades PreK through 8. Most of the students are second generation students, and a few are 3rd generation.
Every summer the community celebrates LA FELITESSE, an Italian festival which celebrates the Italian heritage of most of the people in Old Forge. The community was originally settled by immigrants from Italy who came to this area to work in the local coal mines. Many of their families still reside in the original family homes. As a result, the students have a deeply rooted sense of commitment, ancestry and religious beliefs.
The community support for the school is tremendous. Local merchants are quick to donate services and products for fundraising, senior citizens are willing to come and set up for the annual school rummage sale, and parents and community volunteers run the lunch program and cook a “home cooked” meal for the children daily.
The school is involved in many civic activities at local nursing and personal care homes, pilot programs within the local Chamber of Commerce, such as on-line banking programs for students, and technological endeavors such as Electronic Pen Pals from New Orleans, The Accelerated Reader, participating in several national DataPlace Projects , and the Fuji Film Program which encourages correspondence with students in other states and includes sending electronic mail and photographs. It is interesting to see how the “neighborhood school” manages to keep up with the different trends in education and educational philosophy.