Sometime around ll a.m. this morning, a UPS truck will pull up to Bishop Maginn High School in Albany, N.Y. and deliver about 40 different packages that will together make the school more secure – child ladders, first aid kits, Kevlar blankets, emergency backpacks.

The mail and package drivers keep asking school officials just what’s going on.

The packages will till the hallway outside of principal Mike Tolan’s office. The items inside will help Mike Tolan continue the amazing renaissance he sparked on behalf of an urgently needed and precious school.

Once again, the staff and teachers will be stunned by what they see.

“It seems like a miracle to us,” said one teacher, “almost every day. It’s hard to believe. We’ve had a such a tough few years.”

Last week, 40 or 50 families came early to the school to pick up the school supplies for their children that they couldn’t afford to buy. They filed in early in the morning so that they could have some privacy and picked from stacks of backpacks, notebooks, pens, pencils, and dictionaries.

These proud people were profoundly grateful and asked me to pass along their thanks. They are so happy to be in America.

Last week alone, we raised $10,000 in tuition funds so that Ron Dre (with his father Ronald, above) can attend Bishop Maginn in the Fall for at least three years. (We will need $4,000 more.)

Ron Dre’s current principal says he is the best student in the school, now, perhaps ever.

This week, teachers arriving to prepare their classrooms will find every single one of the school supplies they requested for their students waiting for them on their desks. This will mark the first year in a long time they will not have to spend their own money on school supplies.

When school starts next week, the teachers will find a special room filled to the ceiling with the supplies they need for the school year.

This week, Judi Merriam, the new choir director will purchase a  keyboard for the new choir she is directing without payment.

Sue Silverstein’s art class has easels,  drawing boards, and paints and pens and paper, brushes and sketchpads for the first time ever. Some of her students are already producing extraordinary painting and sketches. For the first time, they can paint outside.

This week, the school’s beleaguered athletic director will have new basketballs to use for the Bishop Maginn students and the neighborhood children who play their games in the school gym rather than roam the streets.

This week, every single Bishop Maginn teacher will receive an Ipad to help them keep track of grades, homework, and online research.

This week, the new computer Lab will open (22 laptops) and this week, the new science room will open – 26 new microscopes, the first working microscopes the school has had in years.

Next week, the school will begin organizing a refugee student dance group, led by the Karen refugee children – dancing is such an integral part of their culture.

This week, four especially gifted refugee students other than Ron Dre’ will transfer into the safe and supportive environment of Bishop Maginn, thanks to the tuition support we have provided. More will need some help during the school year. One of these students was beaten and hospitalized last year in the city’s public schools.

This week, Mike Tolan will unveil two color new banners heralding the “New Bishop Maginn High School,” we raised several hundred dollars for him to do that.

Over the summer, we’ve raised more than $40,000 to start the tuition fund in order to help needy and gifted refugee students get into the school and receive the attention and instruction and support that they need.

Look what you have done.

This work is just starting. This is a school that deserves everything and has nothing. If the Lord’s Work has any real meaning in our culture, this is a school that is doing it.

No new special Wish Lists for a while, but there are several ways to keep on helping Bishop Maginn, and the scores of refugee and other students who attend.

If you wish to contribute to the tuition fund, you can do so directly (it’s tax-deductible) by sending your contribution to Mike Tolan, Bishop Maginn High School, 75 Park Avenue, Albany, N.Y., 12202. Please mark the check “Tuition Fund.”

You can also contribute to the school by visiting the Bishop Maginn Wish List page. There are two gift card options there, one for $10, one for $25.

These gift cards matter, they add up, we bought a laptop with the proceeds from the cards last month. If you’re in the mood for exercising your “do good impulse” after watching the news, please consider sending Bishop Maginn an inexpensive gift card.

So many people have asked me how they can help the school and honor Red – this is such a wonderful impulse – that I’m setting up  Red’s Clothing Project to make sure the students at Bishop Maginn have shoes, hats, gloves and warm shirts and jackets for the winter.

Some of these children come to school wearing flip-flops. Some need socks and underwear.

This will honor Red and his great heart this year and beyond. It will also provide direct help to people who really need it, some of these families can’t afford heating oil in the bitterly cold upstate winter.

By definition, refugees have lost everywhere, and they face unexpected challenges and hostility here. We can help in these simple and unexpected ways.

I’m setting up this program to respect both the privacy and the dignity of these refugee families and their children. I’ll raise the money, not the school, and we will give it directly to the families as the school suggests.

They can choose to purchase what they need. If they need help with transportation, we’ll provide it and if they need help making the purchases, we’ll be there.

If you wish to contribute to Red’s Clothing Project, you can contribute directly via Paypal, [email protected], or by check, Jon Katz, Red’s Clothing Project, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

I’ll try to document these purchases, as always, but there may be some privacy (and pride)  concerns involved in photographing these particular things.

I am so grateful for your support, I hope we can keep it going. Something magical and mystical is happening at Bishop Maginn High School, you are all such a part of it.

I was never sure whether or not to believe in miracles, but I do now. The rebirth and resurrection of this school is nothing short of a miracle, what a joy to be a part of it.