FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio - An act of peace brought 150 parents and students together on Jan. 15 for St. Angela Merici School's seventh annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day service project to benefit HandsOn Northeast Ohio's Homeless Stand Down.

"We invited all of the parents and kids in the school to come and make toiletry kits and bagged lunches," said St. Angela Merici School eighth-grade Confirmation Director Trena Pacetti, who is also a member of the Parent Teacher Connection.

"Everybody has this free day because it's a day off, but I always say it's really a day on. We always start out with a little lesson about Martin Luther King's life and why we do this, to ground everybody. We collect donations of toiletries in the weeks preceding, and we use those to make the bags. Next weekend is when it all happens and gets distributed," she said.

The Homeless Stand Down, which takes place this Saturday at the Cleveland Public Auditorium, is a one-day event for individuals and families facing poverty and homelessness.

Roughly 1,500 people will have access to social service providers, haircuts, medical screenings, live entertainment, professional portraits, breakfast and lunch, free winter clothing, personal care kits, bus passes and more.

St. Angela Merici School, which filled roughly 200 toiletry kits and 100 bagged lunches for the Homeless Stand Down, takes part in numerous service projects throughout the year, including cooking for St Colman's Neighborhood Meals.

"Our mission of the school is very service and faith-based, obviously," Pacetti said. "We tried to provide these experiences for the parents and the children to engage in together. We believe Jesus was always with people who were in the margins of society.

"That's kind of the example we want to set for the kids and kind of a goal we want to make part of their life, so this is not just a one-time thing."