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"HIS
LEGACY," PART 2 (THE INSTITUTIONS)
Grade Levels:
Intermediate
Level 4-6
Performance Task: 1. Using pictures of the Basilica, the institutions, and the poster timeline, discuss the ongoing work begun by Father Baker. The following update on the current services being provided may be helpful.
The Institutions Today
The
work being done in Father Baker’s institutions has changed with the times.
Today the institutions provide housing and assistance for handicapped
youth through group homes and in-campus settings.
The Early Childhood Program provides therapy and education for children
from birth to age seven.
Adoptions are still handled as they were in 1906, but
now they are on an international level as well as domestic.
Foster care is also arranged
for as needed, through Baker Victory Services.
Group homes provide care, support, and training for young mothers and
their infants. Many forms of outpatient
counseling allow children to receive help without having to remove them from
their homes. Individual, family, and
group counseling services are available, as well as psychological consultation.
A special year-round school provides education for children who cannot
function in a normal school due to behavioral problems.
Group homes and larger residential
treatment centers also house adolescent boys and girls with serious
emotional and behavioral problems.
Service to Youth Award
Those
associated with Father Baker's institutions recognize others throughout the
country who do work similar to that of Father
Baker. An annual tribute, "The
Father Baker Service to Youth Award" is given in his memory to a person
who, like Father Baker, has devoted his or
her life to caring for God's less fortunate.
Follow-Up
Activities: 1.
Have
the students write a journal entry describing a life of service they might lead
that would result in their receiving the Father Baker Service to Youth Award.
2.
Visit Our Lady of Victory Basilica and the institutions to witness
first-hand the fruits of Father Baker’s life.
3.
Visit the web site for Our Lady of Victory to find out about the work
that is still being done in the name of Father Baker (see internet resource
sheet).
4.
Discuss how Father Baker would, if he were alive today, serve the
needs of the less fortunate in your communities.
Engage the students in a discussion to generate ideas of how to help
these people. What might you do to
help these people?
5.
Make a wall size mural or individual booklet that tells the story of
Father Baker. Include pictures to
represent the original buildings and important events in his life.
6. Class project: "Build" a basilica. Father Baker sold blocks of marble that would be used in the Basilica as a means of raising money to pay for its construction. Have students build their own Basilica by filling in sections of the enclosed pattern each time they complete an act of kindness or show special devotion through prayer.
7.
Compose "Who Am I?" riddles ending with either Father Baker or
one of the people who was part of his life.
Examples:
I served in the Civil War in the
I assisted Fr. Baker with his work at Limestone Hill for over 30 years.
Who am I?
8.
Allow students to design a flag, symbol, or logo that could be displayed
on the various institutions started by Father Baker as a sign of his life.
9. Complete Puzzle # 3.
10.
Using the Great Commandment or Law of Love, "You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,
You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” compose a literary work showing how
Father Baker lived this commandment each day of his life.
11.
Research the life of St. Vincent de Paul whom Father Baker
12.
Our lives are shaped by choices.
Refer to the biography and make a list of times in Father Baker's life
when he had an important choice to make. For
each event in your list, give one result of the choice he made, and one possible
outcome had he made a different decision.
Scripture Lesson
John 14:2-6
"In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a
place for you? And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that
where I am you also may be. Where
[I] am going you know the way.” Thomas
said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the
way?” Jesus said to him, “I am
the way and the truth and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through me.”
Internet Resources
http://www.ourladyofvictory.org/FrBaker/Welcome.html OLV Main Site
http://www.ourladyofvictory.org/Frbstory/Welcome.html The Father Baker Story
http://www.ourladyofvictory.org/Frbstory/Welcome.html His Early Life 1841 - 1869
http://www.ourladyofvictory.org/Frbstory/making.html Making of a Priest 1869 - 1882
http://www.ourladyofvictory.org/Frbstory/need.html A Time of Need 1882 - 1891
http://www.ourladyofvictory.org/Frbstory/legacy.html A Growing Legacy 1891 - 1921
http://www.ourladyofvictory.org/Frbstory/twilight.html Twilight 1921 - 1936
[Diocese of Buffalo]. All rights reserved.
This page was last updated on 11/12/01