Annual race reveals how Holy Redeemer School is central to its Kensington neighborhood

The greater than 500 college students, households, academics, parishioners, neighbors, pals and neighborhood members together with some canine operating within the streets and park close to Holy Redeemer Catholic School in Kensington, Maryland, for its annual Cardinal 5K and Half-Mile Fun Run on a Saturday this spring illustrated a key side of the varsity, which this 12 months is marking its 75^th anniversary.

“It’s a true neighborhood school,” mentioned John Wasp, who smiled as he ran to the end line alongside his son Johnny, a 3rd grader at Holy Redeemer School. He added that the race “is great for all ages. I love seeing people from the neighborhood and church.”

Kathryn Wasp, John’s spouse, teaches pre-kindergarten on the college, they usually even have a daughter Lucy within the first grade there, and a daughter Kinsey who’s 2.

“I went to school here. My parents still live right down the hill here… I’m proud to be able to come back,” mentioned Kathryn Wasp, who has taught at Holy Redeemer School for the previous 4 years.

She grew up in Holy Redeemer Parish and was baptized and married there.

“It’s made me want to raise my kids in a similar way with a good education and a strong community,” she mentioned.

Tommy Corrigan, the principal at Holy Redeemer School for the previous six years, famous that “over 60 percent of students walk to school. Every day it’s a way the community comes together. Every morning it’s a community builder. You see groups of families walking together to school, and you see the same at dismissal. With the 5K, you see the same thing. Instead of walking to school, we’re running.”

He famous how a number of generations of households, together with dad and mom and grandparents, are energetic locally and assist the varsity and parish.

After every pupil crossed the end line, Corrigan handed them a medal for collaborating within the race. Some dad and mom jogging within the enjoyable run pushed their youngsters in strollers.

Father John Winslow, a parochial vicar at Holy Redeemer who ran within the 5K, praised the neighborhood spirit and religion in that neighborhood. “The Catholic identity and the culture coming together make for a great parish and a great school,” he mentioned.

The annual Cardinal 5K and Half-Mile Fun Run fundraiser and neighborhood occasion, which was held on March 21, is called for the cardinal mascot at Holy Redeemer School. The course for the runners winds by Rock Creek Park and the Rock Creek Highlands neighborhood.

That morning, Caitlin Cannon had 4 youngsters collaborating within the enjoyable run and her husband pushing their child in a stroller for the race. A sound system performed rock music to entertain the gang, and the folks there loved refreshments after the race.

Cannon mentioned it was enjoyable “seeing the community come together in a healthy, happy way. It combines the church and school communities. It’s a neighborhood event. It also encourages the kids to be active and get outside.”

Her three oldest youngsters – Ginny, a fourth grader; David, a 3rd grader; and Mae, a kindergarten pupil — are attending Holy Redeemer School.

“This is like a family to me outside of my hometown,” mentioned Caitlin Cannon, who’s from Cincinnati. “There are generations of families that go here.”

Standing exterior Holy Redeemer Church, the parish’s pastor, Father Thomas LaHood, smiled because the race unfolded. This previous July, he grew to become pastor of the parish the place he grew up. In 1972, he graduated from Holy Redeemer School.

“It grounded me in the faith,” mentioned Father LaHood, who sang within the boys’ choir as a pupil there. “We still had the sisters here. They were great examples of faith.”

The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati served at Holy Redeemer School from its opening in 1950 till the early Nineteen Eighties.

“Now we try to keep our Catholic identity using lay people who are very faithful,” the priest mentioned.

Reflecting on the parish, Father LaHood mentioned, “Nothing has changed physically, the houses, the school, the church. I remember when the church was built in 1962.”

One change, he mentioned, is “now mothers work. In my day, moms stayed home. There’s a lot of balancing going on. Still, kids are kids.”

Noting how Holy Redeemer Church and School are nestled in that Kensington neighborhood, Father LaHood mentioned, “It’s the first parish I’ve seen where kids come to Mass on their scooters.” And on college days, “you have a lot of grandparents bringing their grandchildren to school.”

The multi-generational side of the parish and college might be seen within the winner of the 5K race, Paul Chasen, who drove in from Baltimore to take part. The Holy Redeemer auditorium is called for his grandfather, Herbert Young, a father of seven who volunteered for 40 years operating a twice-weekly bingo night time that raised funds for the varsity.

The annual race and enjoyable run highlights Holy Redeemer School’s sturdy neighborhood, mentioned Tommy Corrigan, who grew to become principal there in 2020, beginning his tenure amid the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I came in with fresh ideas how we could get kids in the door for in-person learning and support online learning,” mentioned Corrigan.

The Holy Redeemer principal grew up attending St. Francis de Sales School in Salisbury on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and he performed soccer and earned a level at Canisius University in Buffalo, New York. He was a Golden Apple Award-winning center college instructor at Our Lady of Victory School in Washington earlier than coming to Holy Redeemer.

The Catholic id on the Kensington college “is lived out consistently and constantly,” he mentioned, noting the varsity Masses each Friday within the church and the all-school rosaries prayed on feast days.

Holy Redeemer college students and college households accumulate meals for the Greg Gannon Canned Food Drive and for the SOME (So Others Might Eat) soup kitchen; make sandwiches for Martha’s Table; accumulate child objects for the Gabriel Project; and maintain a toy drive and accumulate presents for youngsters and households in want at Christmas time. Holy Redeemer college students additionally go to close by retirement communities and sing for residents.

The college’s entranceway features a life-sized cutout picture of Pope Leo XIV, together with statues of the Holy Family. Outside the varsity throughout the circle driveway, folks can pray at a grotto with benches surrounding a statue of Mary tenderly holding child Jesus.

During interviews on the college, a instructor and two eighth graders mirrored on the varsity’s Catholic id. For 75 years, Holy Redeemer School has drawn households from the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhood collectively to deepen and share their religion, and typically to run round neighboring streets for enjoyable.

Mary Harper – a center college faith instructor at Holy Redeemer School since 2013 whose 4 youngsters and her husband attended the varsity – mentioned she hopes her college students study “just to have a relationship with Christ to continue to help them throughout their lives, (knowing that) you can get through anything with your faith.”

She mentioned the Eucharistic Adoration supplied on the parish church “is like a beacon. It grounds the parish.” Once a month, she takes her college students to Adoration within the church, the place they’ve quiet time to hope, away from their telephones. “They love Adoration… They can connect with God and deepen the relationship,” she mentioned.

A spotlight of the 12 months at Holy Redeemer School is the annual Arts Fest in early May, two days the place college students expertise and take part in varied artwork types led by native artisans, studying issues like film storyboarding, portray within the fashion of basic artworks, collaborating in inventive actions together with improvisational performances and taking cooking courses, and occurring discipline journeys to the National Gallery of Art.

Eighth grader Frances Cannon, who has attended Holy Redeemer School for the reason that third grade, mentioned, “I’ve pretty much grown up in this school.” The college is a neighborhood the place everybody is aware of one another, she mentioned, including, “They’re kind of like my family.”

Next 12 months, she will probably be attending Connelly School of the Holy Child in Potomac, the place she is focused on collaborating within the theater program after performing at school musicals at Holy Redeemer. Reflecting on her Catholic schooling there, Cannon mentioned, “One thing I’ve learned is I can always turn to Jesus, no matter what.”

Fellow eighth grader Michael Tallamy has attended Holy Redeemer School since pre-kindergarten and lives a two-minute stroll away from the varsity, which he joked means “not having to wake up so early.”

Tallamy, who was carrying a sweatshirt for Gonzaga College High School in Washington, which he’ll attend this fall on a Presidential Scholarship, mentioned, “I think one thing I’ll never forget about the school is the impact it’s had on my faith.”

He mentioned as a youthful pupil, he felt disconnected from the religion and felt like “I was going through the motions, just worried about myself.” But the varsity’s faith courses and actions “helped me reconnect with my faith in God,” he mentioned.

Tallamy, who performed CYO soccer and basketball there, mentioned, “Even with Holy Redeemer athletics, God is always the highest priority.”

Reflecting on what he had realized from his Catholic schooling at Holy Redeemer, Tallamy mentioned, “Just having God always being the main focus here implanted that same value in me, and I’ll always take that with me in my life.”