BUILDING COMMUNITY...
Often you will hear Shawn and I talk about how the focus of everything at Love City is building community. Even with Mighty Oak Academy, we say we’re not building a school, we’re building a community and a school just happens to be a part of it. One tangible way that we have intentionally focused on building community with the school, is to require our parents to volunteer a certain number of hours a month. When we first put that expectation in place, we weren’t sure how our parents would feel and how willing they would be to volunteer, but they have taken to it with gusto. Every school day we now have 2, 4 sometimes 6 parents helping at the school. We have at least 2 parents everyday help Ms. Joann (who is employed by the school but also has a grandson that is in one of our middle school classes) in the lunchroom. After school we have at least 2-3 parents helping clean the school building with our receptionist Theresa, who also lives around the corner from the school. Every Thursday Ms. Betty, the great aunt of one of our middle schoolers comes to the old Porkland space and cups tartar sauce and ketchup to prepare for the fish fry every Friday. On Friday we had our first Service Friday where the whole school went out into the neighborhood and picked up trash, and we had parents that were accompanying classes as extra chaperones as well.
Parents and Teachers walking their class on their designated route Friday for the first MOA Service Friday to pick up trash in the neighborhood.
When Shawn and I first moved to the neighborhood 7 years ago one of the first people we met was Ms. Betty. She lived right around the corner from the Mackin building and used to attend St Cecilia but moved over to Good Shepherd when they closed St Cecilia and consolidated the parishes. She was highly involved with a monthly dinner called the Table of Plenty, which was run by St Cecilia, and then Good Shepherd. When the Table of Plenty lost its main volunteer that ran the dinners, Betty came to us at Love City to see if we would be able to keep it going. We said we would be happy to help but they would have to provide all the volunteers to run the dinner. We held the dinner a few times, but with the main volunteer leaving, the rest of the volunteers slowly dwindled away until we didn’t have enough people to put on the dinner. Catholic charities then took over Table of Plenty, and now the dinners are held at Catholic Charity once a month at 22nd and Market. We would still see Betty out in the neighborhood here and there. She had a great nephew that was elementary school age and would sometimes come to the Mackin for open gym. When we announced in the neighborhood that we would be opening Mighty Oak Academy, Betty was one of the first people at our door to sign up her great nephew. The day she showed up on the front porch of the Mackin to get all the application paperwork Shawn happened to be at the Mackin for a meeting.
Ms. Joann and one of our 7th grade parents working in the lunch room this past Thursday.
“Shawn,” she called out, “I’ve been praying for you all to start a school here. I’ve been praying for it for years.” Betty signed up her nephew Rilyn for 6th grade last year. This year he is in our 7th grade class. While he has had his moments of frustration, I do believe he is happy to be able to come to a community school right around the corner from his house.
As for Betty, she has become a fixture around the school. On Thursdays she basically puts in a full day’s work, starting at 9am cupping sauces to help get ready for the fish fry, and working until after lunch is over and clean up has been wrapped up, sometimes until 2pm, helping Ms. Joann wash lunch trays and utensils. As she and Ms Joann were walking out of the old Porkland the other day, which is now used as our lunchroom, I heard the talking about another mom from Mighty Oak Academy. Joann was explaining how she’s got a new shift at work and was going to have a hard time finding g a time slot she could come volunteer to meet her requirement.
“I’m not sure what she’s going to do,” Joann said.
“Well just tell her I’ll work her hours for her,” Betty replied as they both passed through the glass doors on their way out of the building.
“Oh, that would be great, “ Joann said, I’ll let her know…” and their voices trailed off as they both got into Joann’s car. Joann was giving Betty a ride home to her house on Slevin St.
Ms. Betty cupping tartar sauce to get ready for fish fry.
Betty’s husband died a few years back, and when you call her house phone number his voice is still the one on the recording asking callers to leave a message and he or Betty will get back to them. Betty has spent her whole life in the neighborhood, her great nephew Rilyn spends more time at her house than he does at home, and she has always volunteered and been involved in community. She may not have realized that when she was praying for us to start a school, she was really praying to bring back her community. It doesn’t matter that everyone doesn’t attend St Cecilia anymore, or even that everyone isn’t Catholic, she is seeing her community come back. There are fish fry’s to prep for, school lunch rooms to be run, buildings to be maintained and cleaned and a community to love.
From my own personal perspective, I can’t explain the feeling that I get when I see Joe, one of our kindergarten dad’s helping with lunch, or Karen one of our 6th grader grandma’s helping mop the bathrooms after school, or 7th grade Trenton’s sister who is now in her 20s and has her own house and job, vacuuming the main hallway in the Mackin or Ms. Betty cupping tartar sauce and ketchup to prepare for Fish Fry. Heartwarming seems an overused term to explain how it feels to see this level of community. It’s more than heartwarming, it’s encouraging, validating, it’s true kingdom of heaven.
CLASSROOM SCHOOL SUPPLY NEEDS...
We do need help with specific school supplies for our classrooms to get ready for school. We have set up an Amazon wishlist to make sending supplies easy. Just click on the link below to select items from the list and they will be shipped directly to the school.
Mighty Oak Academy Supplies Wishlist
If you are interested in volunteering or to find out more information about supplies needed please email: info@lovecityinc.org or call (502) 272-078.
Please consider partnering financially with Love City. We are looking for sponsors for students at Mighty Oak Academy as well as partners to help fund construction of our new preschool. Click the button below to donate today.