| CCPK Wins Award from the Montgomery County Board of Education 
Christ Church has been selected by the Montgomery County Board of Education to receive an award for Distinguished Service to Public Education for our work last year at Arcola Elementary School in Wheaton. The 2007-2008 school year was the first for Arcola, where over seventy-five percent of the students receive free or reduced price meals because of poverty.
Christina Doyle, at the time our vestry representative for outreach ministries, met Tina Padilla, the guidance counselor for Arcola, at a soccer game in Olney, MD. Their conversation was the beginning of a wonderful partnership. During the school year: We had a parish-wide collection for hats, gloves, mittens and coats. (We have a box out for a collection this year!)
Our YAC (Young Adults in Church) provided Thanksgiving Food packages for six families. (Most of Arcola’s other low-income families had received Thanksgiving packages from other sources.)
We had a parish-wide food drive, and our YAC sorted and packed food so that needy families would have food during the Christmas break. CCPK provided food for 100 families, which was distributed in the school gym by Arcola staff.
My Thyme worked with its baker (Lucia Williams) to provide 450 pink and white cupcakes at cost for a Valentine’s Day celebration at Arcola. Several YAC members, Mother Gini, and Gail Marks (a YAC leader) went to Arcola to play games with the Head Start and Kindergarten kids at the Valentine’s day party. The Arcola principal, guidance counselor, and a teacher came to CCPK on Outreach Sunday in May, and we collected money for its building dedication and community celebration in late May.
We had a parish-wide book drive, and collected so many books that each student was able to take home three books at the end of the school year!
Our gifts of time, talent, and treasure have helped define this new school as one which loves and cares for its students and families. We have worked with inspired teachers and staff who recognize that a hungry child, or one who sits shivering on a bus, cannot live up to his or her potential in school. This award is one that the entire CCPK community can be proud of as we put our faith in action in the community!
Watch the award ceremony on Cable Channel 34 on October 23rd at 6:00 pm!
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