Gifts that Keep on Giving

There's an old, white Yukon SUV that lives at Christ Church. Over the years it has helped CARITAS families, transported youth to serving sites, fetched Advent wreaths from the florist, and at least twice a year it makes the trek to the Church Hill neighborhood in East End Richmond. That's where George Mason Elementary School is located, a school that CCE has enjoyed a special partnership with for over a decade, first with Richmond Hill's Micah Initiative and now through the impactful organization, Communities in Schools.

In the fall, the white Yukon is loaded with donated backpacks, notebooks, pencils, crayons, and enough glue sticks for a year's worth of classroom assignments. In the spring, as it was this Monday, the Yukon brings bags upon bags of brand new books to be gifted to the students, ensuring they have good reading material at home over the summer break. (You may remember that your donations to the "Buy the Book" drive in March helped add 250 books that reflect GMES's diversity!)

The Yukon was only part of the caravan to GMES on Monday. Other cars brought ice cream, sprinkles, and many cans of whipped cream, as well as teams of CCE'ers who were ready to scoop ice cream and give away books. In addition to the Book Fair, the children are also treated to an ice cream party as a celebration of all their hard work this school year.

Janet Willis serves at GMES throughout the school year. "It was a fun afternoon interacting with the students, teachers and staff at George Mason," she says. "What a treat to share ice cream and give books to each child. There were many smiles!"

There are many opportunities to add to the smiles at GMES. For more information about how you can get involved, please join the GMES Interest Group in Realm or click here.