Down Payments on a Christly Education

Elementary-school-age kids wearing Catholic school uniforms have been hitting up Country Club Plaza visitors for donations. Cynics may be wondering: Are the children filled with genuine school spirit, or did a deadbeat with a lot of kids devise an awesome panhandling scam?

Alas, the children attend a real school: St. Vincent de Paul Academy, which is near 31st and the Paseo.

The students are raising money for their school’s annual jog-a-thon. This year’s event is tentatively scheduled for Thursday at Southeast High School. The children have an hour to run as many laps around a track as they can. “Some of them do amazingly well,” school administrator Jenny Hollinger says. “But they’re young.”