Jed Smith Back To School Night

Last Wednesday night I got to participate in a remarkable event. Our congregation partners with Jed Smith Elementary School, a school located in housing projects in which ever student is enrolled in the school lunch program. For quite some time we had been supporting classroom teachers by compiling student materials at the beginning of the year, adopting classroom teachers and giving them little gifts and encouragement, providing every child with small gifts at Christmas, etc. More recently we have established a program where we send children home on Fridays with backpacks of food for them and their families. We started this when we found out that children were being adequately fed at school during the week but were going hungry over the weekends. We also started a free clothes closet at the school.

Last Wednesday night we did something new, and equally exciting. The remarkable, high-energy principal, Fay Sharpe, has been working hard to connect the life of the school with the neighborhood. (Every student lives within a few blocks of the school.) One of the key opportunities to foster this connection is Back To School Night, which is an open house at the beginning of the year that usually runs from 5-6pm.. Last Thursday, for Back to School Night, members of Trinity cooked dinner for everybody who came. They made over 20 gallons of delicious, meaty spaghetti sauce to serve with the spaghetti as well as salad, garlic bread and ice cream. We also had the clothes closest open. Usually the children are the only ones who go to the clothes closet because we open it on Friday’s when school is letting out. But this time, entire families could go. We also had a health fair with lots of health information and nurses on site to answer questions, take blood pressure of offer other services. We had a sign up for a parent’s group.

It was a breathtaking success. Fay said attendance was more than double the attendance in previous years. As an example she said in a class of 20 students, 18 students had their parent(s) come. The energy at the school was lovely. The clothes closet was crazy – good crazy. Lots of health material got picket up and the nurses spoke with many young women about women’s health.

I remember my former bishop in Idaho, Bishop Bainbridge, challenging congregations to make such a difference in their communities that if the church would disappear, the community would lament. I feel like Trinity Cathedral is starting to make that kind of difference.

Six parents signed up for a new parent's support group.