by Kayla Rogers | Apr 5, 2023 | WCS Service
Lower School, Middle School, and High School Westbury Christian Students Serve in Local Non Profits
Over the past month, each division at Westbury Christian School participated in a service project. WCS believes volunteering not only benefits our community but also provides an opportunity for our students’ personal growth and development. Our administrators prayerfully plan opportunities for each class to serve the Houston community throughout the year.
Houston Food Bank
In Houston, Texas, the Westbury Christian third graders, sophomores and juniors volunteered to serve at the Houston Food Bank over multiple visits. Students helped pack boxes of food items to help provide meals for those in need. Together they packed 11,520 pounds of food which will provide 9,595 meals.
The sophomores and juniors spent several hours sorting through food donations, checking expiration dates, and packaging items into boxes for distribution.
“We are so proud of our Wildcats for showing Christ’s love by serving others,” says Principal Kaitlyn Ballard.
WCS third graders found the trip inspiring. One of the third grade students, CJ, said, “We learned about teamwork, helping others and offering our time when we are not being paid for it.”
Another third grader, Tamia added, “We can always change the world even when we are young!”
The third grade service project was part of the WCS Lower School’s Project H.U.G. initiative. Established in 2016, Project H.U.G. stands for Hearts Understanding Goodness. The Lower School classes (K3-4th grade) have a month of service centered around an organization the class selects.
“The goal of Project H.U.G. is for our students to share the love of Jesus with their community and the world at large,” says Lower School Principal Amanda Archer. “Our hope is that our students see service as a lifetime opportunity.”
About Houston Food Bank: The Houston Food Bank is a non-profit organization that collects and distributes food to hunger relief charities across 18 counties in southeast Texas. Their mission is to provide food for better lives and work towards ending hunger in the local community. The Houston Food Bank relies heavily on volunteers to help sort and distribute food items. Without volunteers, the organization would not be able to provide the necessary services to those in need.
To watch a video recap of our third graders serving at the Houston Food Bank, watch here: Third Grade Serves at Houston Food Bank
Impact Houston Homeless Outreach Ministry
One of the defining ministries of Impact Houston has always been its outreach to the homeless and marginalized. Impact opens its doors Monday through Thursday to provide a hot meal, shower, clothes, laundry facilities, Bible study and relief from the outdoors for those who need it. Our middle school students (5th-8th grade) had the opportunity to serve alongside Impact volunteers and staff by sorting clothes, hearing stories from ministry coordinators, and cooking and serving a meal for the homeless.
Tim Sells, minister at Impact Church of Christ, told our students, “Today we will be introducing you to a different kind of lifestyle than you are used to—the life of an outdoorsman, which are what we call the homeless men who come in.”
Sells works with the outdoorsmen and talked about what it looks like to be homeless and live on the streets in Houston.
At Impact Houston, there are at least 200 families that come to get food each day. They can serve as many as 1,600 different families each week. Impact Houston would not be able to reach as many families without volunteers, like our students.
After serving, Dennis Jeager showed our middle schoolers the difference between pity and compassion by standing on a chair and talking down to someone as the example of pity, but kneeling down and reaching out a hand to help for the example of compassion. Jaeger also reminded students that small decisions impact our future. “God gives us the ability to choose which way we go, but decisions have good and bad consequences no matter what,” he told students.
To watch the recap of our middle school students serving at Impact, watch here: Middle School Serves at Impact
Westbury Clean Up
Prior to their Senior Experience, the Class of 2023 started the morning performing community service in the Westbury neighborhood. A group of boys spent hours picking up trash in the median. A group of girls deep cleaned the Westbury Church of Christ nursery. These community service projects directly impacted our school community and beyond.
Honor Choir Makes a Joyful Noise to University Place Nursing Center
The Lower School Honor Choir traveled to University Place Nursing Center to sing songs for residents. The Lower School Honor Choir is directed by Bill Ward and consists of students from 2nd through 4th grade. The students sang seven songs to the residents, and their immediate impact was clear.
In addition to a loud round of applause from the audience, the performance also moved some of the residents to tears of joy. The students mingled with the senior residents after the performance and heard how they had made the day brighter for some of them.
At the end of the video clip, you can hear Isabella’s (2nd) explanation for the song selections. Our students are living the truth of the verse found in 1 Timothy 4:12: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”
To watch, view here: Honor Choir at University Place 3/29
by Kayla Rogers | Nov 9, 2022 | Around Campus, High School News, Senior Spotlight, WCS Service
HOUSTON, Texas – Three Westbury Christian seniors–Trina Gonzales, Faith Jonesia and Lexi Kunetka–gained real-world experience on Election Day. They volunteered their time to work the polls, and some of them cast their own ballot for the first time.
The AP Government students were at three different locations across Houston from 6AM – 6PM.
“I’m proud of our student volunteers who are getting to see the inner workings of democracy firsthand,” says Courtney Hatfield, Social Studies Department Chair. “I think we can take our election workers for granted, and it’s easy to overlook the amount of work that goes into putting on an election in each county. Our students get to work with people who care so much about your right to vote (regardless of which political party you are supporting) that they are giving up their time to ensure that the election runs smoothly.”
For Trina, the recognition and appreciation shared by complete strangers stood out to her.
“I was shocked that people didn’t even know me, yet they stopped to tell me that they were proud of me and of my being involved in politics somehow. Despite how hot it was and how long the lines were, everyone was so nice. It was a really wonderful experience.”
Faith also had a positive experience with voters, and she learned important lessons through volunteering.
“Make sure to register in the right spot. Volunteering was fun and informative. I loved helping the age range from young to elderly.”
Spending time at the ballots before casting their votes helped clarify the confusing parts of the voting process. Lexi shared that she grew more confident in her understanding of the election process.
“Everyone was confused walking into the polls and now I know what to do and the process of how to vote. I learned all about the voting process.”
The opportunity to work the polls enriched the learning that had taken place in their classroom over the preceding weeks. The classroom lectures and discussions came to life as they saw the process up close.
“We start out every class with a discussion about current events, so of course we are discussing election results today. One of my favorite things about teaching seniors is that I have many students who are first time voters,” adds Mrs. Hatfield. “Voting is so important! Voting leads to results that can impact every person living in this country. Historically, 18-to-29-year-olds are the least likely age group to vote. If students can understand the importance of voting early on, we can create lifetime voters who will make sure their voices are heard. I’m so glad that I get to play a small role in each student’s political journey by encouraging students to be politically active and vote and celebrating with all of our first-time voters.”
by Kayla Rogers | Jun 17, 2022 | Around Campus, High School News, Lower School News, Middle School News, WCS Service
At WCS, we don’t emphasize a day of service with our students, but rather live lives of service.
A beloved annual fundraising drive to benefit Mission Lazarus and Hope for Haiti’s Children continues for its 24th year at WCS. During the spring semester, students from kindergarten to seniors in high school, collected spare change in water bottles to benefit underprivileged orphans. The 2022 collection included donations collected in 2020 and 2021. “What makes this project extra special is that every penny has been counted for 24 years by the students and goes straight to the charities, ” says Coach Steve Hawley, leader of the project. “We don’t take it to a change machine, we don’t bring in outsiders,100% goes straight to the charity.” This project is completely voluntary for WCS students and families. They are not required to participate. Each year students are excited for the distribution of the water bottles.
HISTORY
Westbury Christian Middle School and High School Bible Teacher and Middle School Girls Basketball Coach, Steve Hawley spearheads the spring long collection. While the project has continued for 24 years at Westbury Christian, the project originated in Lebanon, Tennessee at Friendship Christian School in 1995 with Coach Hawley.
Honduras is a special place in Coach Hawley’s heart. His first mission trip to Honduras occurred in July 1998, a month before his arrival at WCS. A few months later in October 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras. Coach Hawley felt compelled to act and serve. Previously at Friendship Christian School, Coach Hawley and a fellow teacher and cheerleading coach initiated the project. After a successful collection in its first year, Coach Hawley recognized there was still work to do. Year after year, Coach Hawley shared the mission of Mission Lazarus and Hope for Haiti’s Children and encouraged participation. He brought the project with him to WCS. Coach Hawley and the former WCS football coach, Chris O’Neal, searched through trash cans to find empty Powerade bottles to pass out to students to collect change. In an attempt to be resourceful, Coach Hawley wrote to Powerade to provide bottles for the fundraiser. Powerade generously donated 600 bottles for WCS students to collect change for Honduras for the 2000-2001 school year. In 2002, a WCS family bought the bottles for WCS students, which included the WCS crest, Mission Lazarus and Hope for Haiti’s Childrens logos. This family has continued to supply WCS students with water bottles for the past twenty years. Coach Hawley’s room has all 20 water bottles on display for all to see.
MISSION LAZARUS AND HOPE FOR HAITI’S CHILDREN
The funds raised at WCS provides support to two nonprofit Christian organizations: Mission Lazarus, a holistic ministry focused on community development in Honduras and Haiti through spiritual, educational, medical and agricultural outreaches; and Hope for Haiti’s Children, which utilizes in-country educators and professionals to nurture, educate and train poverty-bound Haitian children to become spiritual leaders. This year, WCS has chosen to support the Hope for Haiti’s Children school lunch program. Coach Hawley has visited a few of the schools on his past mission trips. “The children at these schools are fed lunch every day. For some kids, this is the only meal they will get.” says Coach Hawley “So it is vital they get some nutrition everyday.” says Coach Hawley. Mission Lazarus has not shared what they plan to do with the funds yet. In the past, our donation has helped supply a pick up truck or any community needs. This school year, the total donation was $11,740 with two checks split to each organization. “The thing I am most…I hate to use the word proud… but the thing I am most proud of as a teacher and a coach is that we’ve been able to keep this project going for 24 years.” says Coach Hawley.
To learn more about the benefiting organizations, visit missionlazarus.org and hopeforhaitischildren.org.
To see a brief summary of the project this year, watch here.
