What do you give the man who has everything?

Some Catholic schools came up with a wonderful idea for the pope’s birthday:

Pope Benedict XVI turns 81 on Wednesday during his stop in Washington, D.C., and Catholic school students say they have found the perfect present for which size and color don’t matter, and the price is always right: community service. Call it the gift that keeps on giving.

“In giving this gift to the Holy Father, we want to wish him a happy birthday, but we also want him to know the good work that we do, that the Catholic education community does, and our understanding of the call of the Christian community,” says Karen Ristau of the National Catholic Educational Association, which is coordinating the effort.

Students in primary and secondary schools, parish education programs, colleges and seminaries all were asked to devote hours of service in the Birthday Blessings project to honor the pope.

Collecting food for shelters, making rosaries for children in hospitals and staging marathons to raise money are just a few of the ways students are participating.

“Service is a big part of the culture here,” says the Rev. Allen Novotny, president of Gonzaga College High School in Washington. “We’re just excited and happy to be part of this great project.”

Students aren’t the only participants. The project also encompasses teachers and administrators at all levels of Catholic education.

The educational association is planning to present the hours of community service to the pope in a birthday card. The goal is to complete at least 1 million hours of service by May 31.

So far, well more than 350 schools have pledged more than 1.1 million hours of service.