VIDEO: Former Queens Principal Gives Back Through The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Campaign
BAYSIDE — Dennis Farrell may no longer work at Sacred Heart Catholic Academy of Bayside, but returning to the school still feels like coming home.
“It’s a kindergarten class now, but it was my office,” Farrell said during a recent visit to the school, where he served as principal for 27 years.
Over his 48-year career in education, Farrell learned that helping children succeed often means supporting their families, too.
At Sacred Heart, the school adopted a family in need each year, providing food and Christmas gifts to help make the holidays brighter.
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One Christmas, Farrell and others delivered gifts and food to a family whose father was too ill to provide the holiday he wanted for his children.
“When he saw the things that we had brought, he broke down and started to sob,” Farrell recalled.
The experience reflected a lesson in generosity that Farrell had learned much earlier in his own life.
Growing up, his family struggled financially and could not afford the registration fee for him to attend high school. His mother went to the local rectory and asked the pastor for help.
“We had no money to pay for the registration fee for high school,” Farrell said. “So my mother walked over to the rectory and she spoke to the pastor, and he just reached into his pocket and took out the money and gave it to my mother.”
Years later, Farrell discovered that his mother had repaid the priest. But the pastor’s response to her gesture left an even deeper impression.
“He wrote back and said, ‘I never really expected you to repay me, but the fact that you did allow me to help another family in need,’” Farrell said.
That spirit of generosity continues to guide Farrell, who supports Bright Christmas, The Tablet’s annual holiday campaign.
The campaign raises money from readers and local communities to help children in need across Brooklyn and Queens wake up to a gift under the Christmas tree.
For Farrell, supporting the initiative is also a way to give back to the Catholic community that helped shape his life.
“I’m giving back to my church, and I felt that Catholic parishes have a more hands-on connection to the people that they’re helping,” he said.
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As the holiday season approaches, Farrell hopes his story encourages others to find opportunities to help those around them, no matter how small the gesture.
“When they have that opportunity, no matter how small, they should try to do something to help others in need,” he said.
It is a lesson Farrell first experienced as a child, carried throughout his career in education and now hopes to pass on to the next generation.