In May of 2006, Red Bank Catholic became the first and only high school to be acknowledged as an official affiliate of the Maryknoll Missionary Society.  RBC’s dedication to Maryknoll was inspired by former World Religions teacher Ms. Mary Logan. Before joining the faculty at RBC, Ms. Logan was a Maryknoll missionary overseas for several years and during her years teaching, she continued to keep in touch with the many friends she had made while she was there.  They wrote letters telling of their suffering and poverty. Ms. Logan would relate these stories to her students and they were inspired to do what they could to support the efforts of her Maryknoll friends. 

She helped the students begin the RBC Maryknoll Club, which raises funds to support the Maryknoll missions through bake sales, raffles of crafts made by the missionaries, and the sale of bottled water,“mission water,” to students in school. In the first year alone, the sale of mission water raised over $5,000.   One hundred percent of all money raised goes directly to people in need in countries such as Kenya and Guatemala.

In 2007, several members of the Maryknoll Club organized a mission trip to El Salvador to live with and learn from the Maryknoll missioners firsthand. At the time however, the political climate in that country made it unsafe for the students to travel there and they had to cancel the trip. The students were extremely disappointed.

In the summer of 2015 one of those students, who is now a religion teacher and a campus minister at RBC, was able to travel to El Salvador to complete that mission. Mr. Kelly Booth was given the opportunity to volunteer with the Maryknoll missioners there. He says the trip was “an amazing experience of faith, service, and evangelization.”  

Read more about Mr. Booth's experience in the November 2016 issue of Maryknoll Magazine.

Mrs. Maureen Reagan is the current moderator of the RBC Maryknoll Club which continues its fundraising efforts to support the Maryknoll missions. In addition to the mission water sales, the club runs the year-round “Soles for Your Soulmate” drive.  They collect donations of used shoes they then send for recycling, receiving 50 cents for each pound.  The club also evangelizes their message of mercy to the entire student body using social media.

See more about RBC Maryknoll Service Projects