By Jay Sorgi • Posted October 15, 2025

A student at SS. John Neumann and Maria Goretti High School in South Philadelphia had an old-school idea for doing a traditional work of mercy.

Nick Morici, a senior from the Packer Park neighborhood, wanted simply to write letters to deployed members of the armed forces.

His faculty moderator Nikki Kane, Neumann Goretti’s director of institutional advancement, expected just a handful of other students to take part. The large number of students who showed up to write, however, surprised them both.

Now Morici is leading a group sending numerous hand-written letters filled with prayers, goodwill, and support for American men and women serving their country in the military services.

“I had the idea a few years ago, but never put it into motion. Then it was my senior year, so I wanted to start it,” Morici said.

After he presented his idea to Kane, a member of the Lions Club, she and Morici’s junior-year English teacher “put together a plan on what we wanted to do,” he said.

A link from the Lions Club was shared with students who joined up to write, and they met on a late September day inside the school’s new John M. Connolly Center for Business and Entrepreneurship.

“I didn’t expect us to have a lot of people there, but Nick got in touch with all of his friends,” said Kane. “I thought, ‘What is going on outside of the Connelly Center?’ There were kids lining up to come in for this project.”

Morici said the original idea germinated from a service project prior to receiving the sacrament of confirmation that he had done in grade school during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had to do a corporal and spiritual work of mercy,” he said.

“One of the works of mercy that I did was me and a couple of my friends writing letters to veterans. We sealed them and then we shipped them off to a veterans’ home in Philly. So I was just kind of thinking, ‘What can I do? What can I do?’ It just popped right into my head that I’ve already done it before, and I knew that I could probably do it again.”

His inspiration for the project came from the fact that both his grandfathers served in the military, and that service members should receive companionship and personal support from the civilians for whom they have sacrificed.

“My grandfather on my mom’s side tells me stories all the time. He served right out of high school. So he was 18 and went into the service. He didn’t go overseas or anything, but he describes the experiences that he had, and it can be tough,” said Morici, a baseball player who is committed to pitch at Gwynedd Mercy University next year.

“I just thought, ‘What’s one thing that we can do for people who are making our lives a lot better?’ We can’t really see that because not everyone really knows how good we have it compared to those people” serving in the military, he added.

Kane and Morici said they are working with the Lions Club on setting up delivery of the letters.

“Not one of them are the same,” said Kane. “It’s 26 totally different lives. It’s from each student’s heart, really. Each service person has their own lives, their own backstory. It’s something really special between the student and the service person.”

Kane said the Lions Club takes particular service projects that help the military and veterans, and the organization is helping set up a youth version at Neumann Goretti, a “Leo’s Club.”

“We know the letters are going to go to the right people, which is why I’m glad we were able to make the Leo’s Club,” said Kane. “Nick has a vision for the club for this year.”

Morici’s goal involves future letter- and card-writing efforts on a monthly basis.

“I want to get our group to write Christmas cards to kids that are in Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia,” he said.

“It’s an online thing where you create a premade card. You have to write your name on it, and it loads on the kids’ iPads.”

Kane said she joins many at the school who see the simple, pure intention of Morici’s actions as something the Neumann Goretti community can be proud.

“I had a couple of the girls that came to support Nick and write the letters the week of the meeting,” Kane said.

“They were so excited for him. They asked, ‘Do you know why he wants to do this?’ We live in a world where there has to be some kind of reason why someone chooses to do something.

“If you’re doing something good, it’s like, ‘His dad’s in the military or something.’ But I think the special thing about Nick is that he’s doing something good just because he wants to do something good.”