Martin Luther King Jr. challenged people to step up and help others and question what they can do to make the world a better place. It’s not too early to talk about these concepts with preschoolers – it encourages children to see the world through the eyes of another and helps to develop compassion and empathy. We’ve discovered that children at A Child Becomes have big hearts!

We have found organizations both near and far that need help, and we have developed some simple projects that allow the children and their families to give back.

TOY DRIVE FOR TOYS FOR TOTS

Each December we hold a toy driver for Toys for Tots and encourage students and families to bring an unwrapped toy into school that could be donated to Toys for Tots. Our school partners with our local Fire Station 29 to collect more than 120 toys for children in our area. The students pile wagons high and pull them over to the station for donation. Typically we get a tour of the station and the kids get to sit in a fire engine! We head back to the school for hot cocoa and a holiday sing-a-long! It’s a great lesson in sharing, and is always festive and fun!

Our local online news source, the West Seattle Blog, covered our donation drive and voyage in 2016:

BOOK DRIVE FOR AFRICA

This year we are continuing a project that we started last year, a book drive for to help build a library in Ghana. 93% of schools in South Africa do not have libraries!  We partnered with African Library Project, a California based non-profit dedicated to building school libraries in Africa.  They helped to match us up with a school and ship the books for us – which means they handle processing through customs and distribution to the school.

Our students and families collected and donated over 1200 books that will benefit Baniantwe SDA Basic. Our families also donated nearly $500 to help with the cost of shipping these books!  An incredible effort and hugely successful project!

Our students created notes and cards that were included in the boxes that were packed up and sent in April.  We’re anxiously awaiting confirmation that our books arrived safely and hope to hear news from our new friends in Ghana about the books they received.

FOOD DRIVE TO SUPPORT WEST SEATTLE FOOD BANK

For the past several years we have asked families to help support the BackPack program at the West Seattle Food Bank – a program designed to provide healthy and balanced meals for children over the weekend when other food programs may not be available. Children at risk of weekend hunger receive a “backpack” consisting of six balanced meals that are kid-friendly, nutritious, nonperishable, and easy to prepare/eat. Each preschool family receives a grocery bag with a wish list of items that support the program. We have collected more than 1500 pounds of food over the past two years alone!

PLAY YARD CLEAN UP

On Saturday, February 4th parents and staff rallied to help transform the school’s play yard.  We started at 9AM on a gorgeous and sunny Seattle morning and had completed the work by 1PM.  About 40 people showed up with rakes, shovels, dump trucks, buckets, plants, bulbs, wheel barrows and most importantly, a GREAT attitude!  We were able to clear out all of the gravel and replace it with cedar play chips – MUCH softer according to all of the kids who tried it out for us.  Shrubs were trimmed, trees were pruned, junk was hauled, gardens were prepped, the shed was cleaned out – what a fun day. Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen!