Our staff held an informal Christmas luncheon late last week, and we were reflecting on the past year and the good things happening at Operation Shoestring. One of our program directors told us a great story that we wanted to share with you.
An elementary school student named Sentriz was part of our Project KIDS after-school program last academic year. Because of some transition in his home life, Sentriz didn’t officially register for Project KIDS when this 2009-2010 school year began last August. But he didn’t want to miss a day at Shoestring, so he walked to our building after the first day of school at Galloway Elementary School. When our project coordinator noticed that we had one child too many, she approached Sentriz and said that she’d love to have him join us, but that his parents had to register him.
To her surprise, nine-year-old Sentriz was back at Shoestring that same afternoon! He had walked home just around the corner, gotten his mother and walked her right back to our Project KIDS after-school classrooms so that he could immediately get back to his school work and to the learning opportunities that we offer! He obviously wanted to be a part of the Spanish classes, arts instruction, academic reinforcement and character education that Shoestring’s Project KIDS ministry provides every school day and most of the summer.
I think Sentriz’s story illustrates perfectly the drive that so many of our children display and the value that they place on the nurturing and support they receive at Operation Shoestring. We can’t thank you enough for helping us provide this to them.