Friday, May 01, 2009
Faith Christian School spruces up shelter
Faith Christian School has a day of service.
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Josh Smith, 5, was one of many Faith Christian School kindergartners assigned to freshen up flower beds outside the Salvation Army's Turning Point shelter last Friday. The sun beat down on Josh's yellow T-shirt as he probed through a row of tulips, looking for weeds.
Josh had no trouble identifying why he was there -- "to help the Salvation Army" -- or where the weeds were, for that matter. But he stumbled a bit when it came to naming the flowers.
"Roses" was his first response after eying the blush-colored plants. But then he changed his mind: "No, tulips."
Smith was one of the 443 Faith Christian School students, parents and faculty who participated in Project Faith 2009, the school's annual community service project and fundraiser.
The Roanoke K-12 school engages in a daylong service project every spring to raise money for the school, said Susan Childs, Faith Christian's assistant director of development. Students' families and neighbors, as well as area corporate sponsors, pledge funds to the school for the community service hours. The money raised from Project Faith goes into the school's annual fund, which covers tuition assistance and operational costs, Childs said.
This year the school raised more than $150,000 and completed 2,000 community service hours with the Salvation Army. They tackled indoor and outdoor tasks at the organization's community center, thrift store, and women and men's shelters in Roanoke.
As the sun blazed outside Turning Point, a group of middle school girls dressed in puffy jackets took up the task of cleaning out the freezer in the shelter's kitchen.
"After this, I'm being a vegetarian," 12-year-old Alyson Bailey said, as she scraped meat and cheese from the shelves.
Darlene Young, director of Turning Point, said the day of service helped out the shelter tremendously.
"We wouldn't be able to do all this work. We just don't have the money," Young said.
In past years the school has chosen Roanoke's greenways and the Rescue Mission as Project Faith sites. This year the school decided on the Salvation Army because the organization "does so much with so little," Childs said.
Among the many activities that were part of project were a book drive, clothing drive, spring cleaning, painting and yardwork.
At the Salvation Army's community center in Southeast Roanoke, a few high school art students participated in the design of a mural inside the center's stairwell.
"You should have seen this area before the pictures. It was so dark and gloomy," said Krysten Marshall, the school's art teacher.
Junior Maggie Hedrick said it felt good to help out by doing something she loved -- painting. "You get to give back to your community and have fun doing it," she said.
