“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”    Luke 12:48

There are so many ways to get involved in Chester.  The rewards are incredibly gratifying.  One specific place where was the Frederick Douglass Christian School where Andrew was housed during his weeks of summer ministry to the youth of the City of Chester.

Through the Foundation in the Spring of 2011, Karen Hicks was volunteering every Tuesday in the library of the FDCS.  Karen read books to different classes and helped children browse the library shelves to find appropriate books for each child to check out.  She also listened to children read which they may not have had the opportunity to do with anyone else during the week.  For the 2011-2012 school year, Karen is volunteering in the 5th grade classroom, helping individual students with math, reading to the class and working with them on their Bible studies.

Mary Beth Maglio, a West Chester mom and retired WCASD teacher with 36 years of teaching experience, joins Karen at the FDCS each week.  She is taking the opportunity to get involved in a classroom setting as a Teacher’s Support Person.  She is acting as a Reading Specialist and also a Math Specialist for fourth grade.  Mary Beth has been a Godsend for the fourth grade teacher and for the precious students in her class.  She brings so much encouragment, enthusiasm and knowledge with her!

Leslee Hoey, a Downingtown mom and experienced teacher, joins Karen and Mary Beth every other week.  She works in the second grade classroom with individual students.  Leslee particularly enjoys math and get the chance to work one-on-one with students on decimals and money and reviewing their math facts.  She is a really fun teacher’s assistant who always is wearing a smile and so much love to share with the kids.

On May 4, 2011 six high school students from Henderson High School in West Chester went down to the Frederick Douglass Christian School for the day to volunteer their time and talent to clean up and repair the school.  Aggie Lawrence, Sam Campbell, Jess Kosmicki, Sean Lamont, Chris Cruz and Kevin Edwards worked on several projects that day.  After getting a brief tour of the school, the young men spent a couple of hours disassembling a stage that was in the cafeteria, carried it upstairs to the gymnasium and set it up again in preparation for Kindergarten graduation.  The young ladies worked with Karen Hicks to clean, refresh and reorganize the cafeteria which included two sinks, two refrigerators, two stoves and ovens, a microwave and lots of cabinets and shelves.  The boys continued by working on stairwells and hallways.  The group reconvened at lunch time to eat with the students of the school.  This might have been the highlight of the day!  Some high schoolers reconnected with children they had spent time with at other Foundation events during the year!

During the afternoon the whole group worked on cleaning up the science lab.  All desks were scrubbed, equipment was cleaned and organized, and the whole room was put together in preparation for its use once again as the school is adding a fifth grade in the fall and the science lab will be a part of that class’ education.  While Sean, Chris and Kevin continued to work on that, Aggie, Sam and Jess broke out the paintbrushes and proceeded to paint rows and rows of lockers.  The new and very vibrant colors gave the hallways a huge dose of cheerfulness and fun!