By Zoe Dutchik
This year, Regina celebrates the Lenten season in a very modern way. The theme of this year’s Lent season is “Lent Green.” Lent Green is a spin-off of the popular “Go Green” movement that is currently sweeping the nation.
The opening assembly took place on Ash Wednesday. As is tradition, Regina art teacher John Demory created a mural that complied with the theme of Lent Green. “Mrs. (Kathy) McCue (campus minister) always gives me a theme, and this year she said, ‘We’re going green with Jesus.’ What that meant to me is that God gave us the earth to take care of. So I decided to make the mural depicting the earth in God’s hands,” said Demory.
This year, students are taking an active role in the Lenten season. A select group of Regina High School students constitutes the “Green Team.” The “Green Team” is responsible for all activities involving Lent Green. These activities include green T-shirt Fridays, weekly before-school prayer, hallway clean-up, an upcoming day of adoration and various Lenten assemblies. “Our goal is to make you feel better about yourself when Lent is over by renewing yourself with God, recycling old clothing, respecting ourselves and what we are given, and reusing items like the food we don’t eat. I hope everyone gets out of it what I do,” said “Green Team” member Jordyn Lehman.
There are four basic tiers of the Lent Green theme. The first is respect. “Respect is just a basic effort to take more responsibility for the appearance of our school,” said Lent Green leader McCue. In an effort to encourage students cleaning up after themselves, Regina students participated in a week of hallway clean-up. The grade with the most consistently clean hallway was rewarded with a free jeans day.
The second tier of Lent Green is recycle. Beginning on March 20, Regina will participate in a clothing drive for teens. “The goal of the (clothing) drive is to get good, contemporary clothing for underprivileged teens,” said McCue. The clothing will then be distributed to the VAY and a church in Columbus Junction. An assembly will be held in March so students can see the types of clothing that are appropriate to donate.
The third tier of Lent Green is reuse. “We are trying to make students more aware of the recycling program, especially at lunch,” said McCue.
Last is renew. Renew is an effort to renew your spirit through prayer and reflection. Each Friday at 7:45 a.m., a prayer service is held in the chapel. There will also be a day of adoration during Holy Week, in which the students will pray all day. “It’s very similar to Pray 410,” a prayer-a-thon that took place Feb. 1 during Catholic Schools Week, said McCue.
