![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/St.-Agnes-School-Sock-Collection-2026-300x225.jpg\")
Fifth grade students from Saint Agnes School in Towanda pose with nearly 400 pairs of socks that they collected for the local VFW during Catholic Schools Week 2026.<\/p>\nTOWANDA \u2013 Across the Diocese of Scranton, Catholic Schools Week looked a little different this year.<\/p>\n
A big snowstorm in late January, icy roads, and frigid temperatures forced delays, closures, and schedule changes in many places, stretching what is traditionally a single week of celebration into something longer and more flexible in many communities.<\/p>\n
Fifth grade students from Saint Agnes School in Towanda pose with nearly 400 pairs of socks that they collected for the local VFW during Catholic Schools Week 2026.<\/p>\n
Yet even as calendars shifted, the foundation behind Catholic Schools Week remained the same: faith, learning, and service to others.<\/p>\n
Throughout the 19 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Scranton students participated in outreach projects that extended beyond school walls and into the wider community. <\/p>\n
One such example came from Saint Agnes Elementary School in Towanda, where students collected socks to benefit the local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post.<\/p>\n
The socks will be distributed to men, women, and children throughout the local area and the state \u2013 providing warmth and comfort during the cold winter months.<\/p>\n
The service project was organized by the school\u2019s 5th Grade Kindness Club, which took responsibility for collecting and counting donations from every grade level.<\/p>\n
From Pre-K 3 through sixth grade, students were encouraged to bring in socks, turning a friendly competition into a shared mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were bringing socks and we would count them up and give them to people who need them,\u201d fifth grader Killian Smith said. <\/p>\n
When asked how it felt knowing the socks were going to the VFW, Smith\u2019s answer was simple and sincere: \u201cGood.\u201d<\/p>\n
His classmate, Will Eberlin, was struck by the number of donations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of socks,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will help a lot of people, and it will keep people warm.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end more than 360 pairs of socks were collected, with second graders leading the way by donating 96 pairs.<\/p>\n
Several students spoke about how meaningful it was to help others during a week already filled with celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cCatholic Schools Week is really fun because you get to play games and think of the people you\u2019re giving to,\u201d fifth grader Sofia Lrozzo stated.<\/p>\n
For Max Bride, the combination of learning, fun, and service is what makes Catholic Schools Week special.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s nice to help people,\u201d Bride said. <\/p>\n
Through projects like the sock collection, students at Saint Agnes School learned to live the Gospel in tangible ways and that even small acts of kindness can make a meaningful difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOWANDA \u2013 Across the Diocese of Scranton, Catholic Schools Week looked a little different this year. A big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-118083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-scranton","9":"tag-scranton-headlines","10":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}