Students Adopt a French Boy

In the aftermath of World War 1, a number of relief efforts were established to care for widows and orphans, wounded soldiers, and refugees in Europe. Upon learning of the opportunity to support an orphaned child, the school stepped up and “adopted” a little French boy—Jean Baptiste Engel. Jean had just celebrated his second birthday in 1915 when his father, a shipyard foreman, was killed. The commitment was $50 a year, and the funds came from the school’s Sunday collections. The relationship lasted almost a decade until September 1926 when the school, which itself was experiencing financial hardship, made the difficult decision to withdraw its support of Jean Baptiste.