By Tony Gutiérrez
Special to The Texas Catholic
Oil, water, two eggs, and brownie mix. Every other Wednesday at Notre Dame School of Dallas, 17-year-old Matthew Salinas mixes those ingredients to make brownie batter.
While many times the students at Notre Dame — a school serving students with developmental disabilities ages 6 to 22 — are the recipients of service, this exercise allows Salinas and his classmates in the school’s BRIDGES program to be of service to others. Money raised from the brownies they bake goes to support Old Fangak Primary School in South Sudan.
“Our call to help others is so important in the world; but especially with the population that we serve, it’s really important to teach them that they don’t always just have to be recipients of service,” Primary I teacher Allison Zentz Wiewel said. “A lot of times, we get many volunteers at our school who come to want to help out with our students because they have special needs, but we strive to teach them that they can be God’s hands and feet in the world too.”
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the school’s BRIDGES program — high school-age — students made the brownies to raise money for various causes. After a five-year hiatus, the fundraiser returned this school year as the teachers learned about Old Fangak in South Sudan from Sister Anna Marie Reha, SSND. The School Sisters of Notre Dame sponsor both Notre Dame and Old Fangak.
Many of the students in the Sudanese school have to walk. In the culture where Sister Anna Marie serves, when families lack the means to pay for tuition, they tend to prioritize their sons, creating a disparity for young women.
“We thought, ‘Let us make brownies, and whatever money we make, we can send specifically for the girls to be able to go to school,’” Notre Dame Principal Carmen Fernandez recalled.
The students make the brownies in their “Daily Living Skills” classes. As part of the project, the students also take orders, collect and count money, bake and bag the brownies, and deliver them.
“It’s not just about baking the brownies; it’s the planning ahead of time. It’s ordering, coming up with the orders, making an order form, counting how many brownies, working on writing out onto the bags,” said Daily Living Skills teacher Megan Burchard, who oversees the project. “Sometimes there’s some typos on the bags — and that’s OK.”
The project is helping the students apply what they learn in their other classes in a tangible way, Burchard said.
“This is giving us a real-world experience to teach what I can’t necessarily teach in my classroom every day — it’s getting to practice everything all the teachers are doing with reading and math and daily skills,” she said. “It culminates into this real-world hands-on project that they get to say from start to finish they created, and that’s really, really cool.”
The process takes four days — to take orders, mix the batter, bake and bag the brownies, and to deliver them. Burchard said they emphasize safety and hygiene throughout the process.
They limit their customers to school staff and board members. The brownies sell for $1 each, and so far, the students have raised $400 for their fellow students in Africa.
“It’s important to show that our students can serve anybody no matter ability or skill. We’re able to go out into the community and serve those who also need service,” Vice Principal Jesse Casares said. “We do receive a lot of service — a lot of people come here to volunteer, and they come to help us — but it’s also great for us to go out into the community.”
“It’s one of those things that, big or small, it makes a difference, especially for our kids to know that, they’re helping somebody else,” he added.
Salinas and 17-year-old Fabiana Diaz said they enjoy seeing their customers’ faces when making their deliveries. The students also have the chance to buy their brownies.
Salinas said his favorite part of the process is writing the customers’ names, including his own.
“There it is,” he smiled.
Cutline for featured image: Notre Dame School of Dallas students make brownies that will be sold to raise money in support of students at Old Fangak Primary School in South Sudan. (Notre Dame School of Dallas photo)
