By Conrad Dudderar
Senior Staff Writer
Just a few days before students returned to class, about 100 members of one church didn’t have to go far to help a Yukon school.
About 100 volunteers from Christ’s Church of Yukon (CCY) participated in “Be the Church Sunday” on Aug. 11 at Shedeck Elementary School, 2100 S Holly.
Church members met at 9 a.m. at CCY, 620 W Vandament, to celebrate in prayer and communion before heading “around the corner” to Shedeck Elementary and serving in the name of Jesus.
This was the second year Christ’s Church had “Be the Church Sunday” at Shedeck Elementary.
The school is close to the church and could use volunteer help, according to CCY Pastor Clay Parrett.
“We selected Shedeck Elementary based on need and location,” Parrett said. “There was a definite need right here in our community around the corner from CCY.”
There were plenty of tasks for everyone to complete at the school, including:
• Trimming the low-hanging trees and branches.
• Touching up the playground paint.
• Installing new basketball nets on the playground.
• Adding reading boulders under two of the trees near the playground.
• Repairing and replacing missing brackets from bookshelves in the library.
• Pulling staples out of uncovered bulletin boards.
• Organizing closets and backstage areas.
• Wiping down and dusting everything in the classrooms.
• Making welcome signs and encouraging notes for teachers.
• Removing a climbing wall from the gym.
CCY members also conducted a prayer walk-through at the school and classrooms to pray for Shedeck’s students and teachers. The first day of the 2019-20 school year was Thursday, Aug. 15.
CCY volunteers were glad to return to Shedeck Elementary for this second annual “Be the Church Sunday” service project.
“Last year we worked on cleaning up and painting the Shedeck Elementary playground and completed some inside projects as well,” Pastor Parrett said.
Shedeck Elementary Principal Deidre Bradley appreciates the contributions made by CCY members.
“It meant a lot,” Bradley said. “It was just an answer to a prayer. Our district does a fantastic job getting our school ready, but as with all schools, there’s always little things we can use extra help with.”
Several weeks before “Be the Church Sunday”, the Shedeck principal met with CCY representatives to share her school’s vision and focus.
Bradley was overwhelmed by the response on “Be the Church Sunday” with about 100 church members coming out to help.
“Due to our demographics, sometimes we don’t get a lot of volunteers,” she said. “It really helped boost morale for our faculty and staff to see that many people make such a huge investment in our school.”
One popular addition provided by CCY members is a new reading area in the school playground. This area features a circle of seven boulders where students can sit under a shade tree to read, draw and just relax with their friends.
“It’s already been a huge success,” Bradley said.
CHURCH ‘LOCALLY AND GLOBALLY’
CCY members want to be the hands and feet of Jesus – reaching up to Him and reaching out to others, according to the church’s lead pastor.
A 26-member team recently returned from Guatemala where they taught Bible classes to about 600 children of all ages and completed several building projects including a playground.
“We want to be the church locally and globally,” Pastor Parrett said.
Another CCY crew was assembled in July to help a kindergarten teacher at Central Elementary School to paint and prepare her classroom. She had just been assigned a new classroom and had limited movement after back surgery.
Meanwhile, CCY on Saturday, Aug. 3 hosted a community “Back to School Bash” along with its monthly Christ’s Closet.
Church members handed out 100 backpacks with school supplies in 30 minutes and gave 30 haircuts. About 180 families and 750 people were served.
