Gracious Giving

Our school, Grace Christian Schools of Long Beach recently collected shoes from our school families for the Soles for Souls program through Sports Chalet. Here are some of our 6th graders with the shoes they collected for the people of Haiti.
Early Wednesday mornings finds my colleague, Jill Hoover and I on playground duty. At the beginning of the school year the mornings are very pleasant. However, when the cold frosty mornings began, it was evident by the lack of jackets that our students were not prepared for the cold. Some students were even staying home because of the lack of warm clothing.

The same week the cold mornings were felt, I read in the Parkcrest Church bulletin the high school department was having a jacket drive. I contacted the high school director, Rachel Oblon and inquired if the McKinley students could benefit from the jacket drive. She told me one of the high school students, Katie Kelly, was coordinating the drive and then she generously offered to dedicate the entire jacket drive to our school.

We sent a flyer out to parents telling them they could come to our school cafeteria on a specific Saturday with their student and pick out a jacket. Rachel and Katie brought a team of dedicated Parkcrest volunteers down to McKinley with 430 jackets early on that Saturday morning. The line of parents and students stretched down the block. Our community along with Parkcrest Church, really came through for our kids and beautiful jackets were handed out to the students and their families.

It takes a village.