When Pastor Du’Chene came up with the idea for a serve day at Olmos Elementary, he probably had no idea that such a variety of groups would come together to serve!
On the morning of Saturday, May 17th this team cleaned up the streets around the campus, an empty lot across the street, as well as the school campus itself. Then they planted 4 flats of flowers around the school. Not only were there volunteers from Pastor Du Chene’s church (Faith Worship Christian Center), there were also students from Olmos, Sunnyside High School as well as a group from Cal Poly who were in Fresno with F.I.F.U.L. for 24 hours learning about urban ministry.
As they were preparing lunch for everyone, a parent who was dropping his kids off at Saturday Sports asked what was going on. They told him they were having a Serve Day and asked if he wanted to join them. He EAGERLY joined in and was a HUGE asset to the day.
Key Word: ASSET! Every neighborhood has assets. Sometimes it just takes an event like this to begin discovering them, and the potential when they work together and focus on an opportunity for change and growth. So many came together on this day:
Olmos students were serving at their own school.
Parents were involved not only in this serve day, but have been “the force” that started the Saturday Sports Program at Olmos.
Principal Tharpe has been such an encouragement! She is a part of everything that goes on at Olmos and a visible presence even on the weekends.
The church, Faith Worship Christian Center, that holds services each Sunday at Olmos, now calls this school “home”, which makes them more deeply invested in the neighborhood.
Students from Sunnyside High school served Saturday at Olmos – a school that feeds into their school. This gave them opportunity to talk to the Olmos kids about high school.
Students from Cal Poly came to serve and were able to talk to the Olmos and Sunnyside students about the value of a their college education.
It was a GREAT DAY in the Olmos Neighborhood and Pastor Du’Chene feels very blessed to be connected to this school and neighborhood. It’s a partnership that has potential to grow even more!
It’s a neighborhood where many assets are being discovered. That makes us smile!
