Holden Fernandez '23 (left) and Adam Perhosky '08 (right) deliver
150 meals to the St. Joseph's Hospital night shift
JESUIT PERSPECTIVES • SPRING 2020 7
Jeff Buyak ’21 I’m thankful for the
opportunity I had to volunteer at
Metropolitan Ministries during this
stressful time. During my time assisting
the Metropolitan Ministries staff, I
could see the impact my contribution
had as we accomplished tasks which
were not able to be done due to the
lack of support during the pandemic. I
also had a chance to notice my impact
as I distributed the meals to some of the residents as they
time.
Logan Cappuccilli ’20
These cloth masks are very
important to the employees
and workers who need them
the most, the ones who are
providing their services to the
public during this pandemic.
By making masks for these
employees, I feel like I am
making a difference for my
community, to better the
public health and awareness during this challenging
pandemic. I am very thankful that I can help do a small
part to try and assist the people working every day as
the coronavirus pandemic has impacted our community
in Florida.
Vincent Girgenti ’20 In this surrealistically strange time,
it is good that we are able to serve our communities
from home. It also is fantastic that I was able to do this
kind of service, which I can say has been very enriching
intellectually. Reading and transcribing these historical
accounts is like stepping back in time into the mind of
other people.
Adrian Cancio-Rodri-
I learned the true
joy of helping kids in this
time of crisis. School itself
can be very time-consuming
and in some cases
demotivating when you
get a bad grade despite
all the hard work you put
in. Helping others in need,
especially in this time of
during this pandemic. Tutoring other kids has been
really a blessing and something I want to continue
doing in this time of crisis, to give back to the
community and all the medical professionals risking
their lives for our safety and welfare.
Feed Our
Health Heroes
My father is a Battalion Chief for
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue and
my mom is an OB/GYN sonographer.
Sitting at home during this pandemic, watching
my parents both continue working to help
others, I started to think about what I might be
able to do to help.
Fundraising seemed like something I could
do from home, but I would need help to
reach more people. I spoke with my parents
about sharing my fundraiser “Feed Our Health
Heroes” on their social media, and within the
chose to feed the night shift at St. Joseph’s
Hospital because (we were told) they had
been the ones with the least support during
unit had 19 and the security team had 20 – it
turned out we would need 150 meals to cover
everyone.
I really hoped that we would get enough
money to feed them all, because how can you
pick which departments to feed and not feed?
I talked with my family about local restaurants
we could contact and it proved to be more
the donation totals and we knew we could get
to $1,000 if we just pushed a little harder. We
kept reposting the picture with my request for
Luckily, Adam Perhosky ’08 with American
Social was able to come through for us with
up the drop off date (April 16), and Adam was
taking care of the food. (We were) able to give
back, say thank you, and show our family and
friends what we were able to do with their
Wearing masks and
gloves, Jesuit students
have been able to
continue assisting
Metropolitan Ministries,
the large charity in the
heart of Tampa that has
been serving the poor
and homeless since
1972.
Masks for health care workers
has been an important issue.
Jesuit High School’s Engineering
teacher, Eric Price, has used
the school’s 3D printer to make
face-fitting, suction-designed
shells for N95 masks for Tampa
neonatologist Dr. Alfonso
Vargas, P ’20, ’22 and his staff,
and Jesuit students also have
been contributing to the need.
Logan Cappuccilli ‘20 cut and
pinned together patterns for
masks, the inner and outer
layers, for local McDonald’s
employees.
Among the unique service opportunities that have been presented
to Jesuit students has been serving the Smithsonian Institution by
assisting with transcriptions.
BY HOLDEN FERNANDEZ '23
mom or grandma
for conjugation of
Spanish verbs or
began speaking
Spanish non-stop
for hours on end.
… I feel like our
education system
needs to be improved
to help with
Spanish-speaking
students. … My
mom is an immigrant
too, and she
said that Yisell
would pick up
English in about a
year.