Faith Lutheran students take part in annual holiday service day

By Ashley Livingston

Monday, Dec. 22, 2008 | 3:31 p.m.

Bundled up against the chill as they stood in the cold warehouse of the Caring 4 Kids Foundation Friday, the group of sixth and seventh grade students from Faith Lutheran Jr/Sr High school worked to help ensure that a number of the valley’s in-need and homeless students would have at least a bagful of nutritious items to snack on as the holiday break approached.

As part of a national day of service done annually by Faith’s middle school, the Henderson-based office of the foundation was one of 29 locations visited by the groups of students who make up the middle school’s 570-person student body.

Forming an assembly line of sorts around tables topped with crates of Easy Mac, ravioli, granola bars, fruit cups and candy canes (a special addition for the holiday), the students laughed and joked as they each added a different item to bags destined for elementary and middle school children.

Each week, volunteers at the Caring 4 Kids Foundation deliver similarly packed bags to more than 550 in-need and homeless children to ensure they will have nutritious meals during the weekend.

Sixth grade Faith student Brandon McCormick commented on the event as he added fruit snacks to the bags being passed around.

“There are a lot of kids out there,” he said. “If we can just give them a couple of things when they go to school, they can keep in mind there’s actually someone looking out for them.”

Schoolmate Lexi Morrison, a seventh grader, said, “I learned I feel very blessed to have all of this food and very fortunate,” as she added granola bars to the bags.

Middle School Principal Sarah Heislen said a sense of gratitude was one of the most important things she hoped the students would gain from their experiences.

And that was a message they seemed to absorb as they packed the bags.

“We’re helping people who don’t have the stuff we take for granted,” said seventh grade student Bri Yee.

“I think it’s such a privilege to be able to help people who aren’t as fortunate as we are and don’t have as many things as us,” said Trevor Driscoll, a sixth grader.

The other thing Heislen said the experience does for students is get them in touch with a whole other world of which many of them don’t have any first-hand knowledge.

“They know there’s poverty in the world, but to actually see it is an eye opener for them,” she said.

Geewoo Kim, a seventh grader, laughed and joked with her friends as she added granola bars to the bags.

“I like having the feeling that I’m helping people,” she said.