Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Souper Bowl of Caring


Dear JES family and friends,

The Rachel’s Challenge Initiative in DRAGON COUNTRY is turning three years old this month. And we are celebrating! To celebrate our campus will be participating in the Souper Bowl of Caring January 30th – February 3rd. We will be collecting non-perishable food items for Christ’s Haven for Children in Keller   www.christshaven.org . Christ’s Haven provides group homes for orphans and for children of incarcerated parents.

At Christ’s Haven, the children live with house parents in a rural setting. I hear that they have cows, horses and chickens and lots of wide open spaces to run. They ride the bus and attend school in Keller. The families have provided a Wish List for us. The Wish List includes the following: Pop Tarts, kids’ type cereals, microwave popcorn and kettle corn, individually packaged snacks like cookies, nuts, muffins, grape jelly, honey, 1000 Island and honey mustard salad dressing, saltine crackers, and small bags of chips for lunches and snacks. Our Johnson families never fail when it comes to generosity and our students love to feel like they are helping others.

Do you remember the challenge? Rachel Scott was a student who showed compassion to everyone, especially new students, students with differences, and alienated students. She once wrote that she believed that one’s kindness could start a chain reaction that would lead to more of the same and that it would have no end. Rachel’s challenge is to start a chain reaction of kindness and compassion. Students have the power to make permanent, positive, cultural change in their schools and communities by accepting this simple challenge.

Our character trait for February is HONOR defined as “letting someone know you see how valuable they are”.  Our Core Essentials program states:

Why is it important to teach kids about honor? Because every day we are given the opportunity to show those around us that we think they are valuable. We honor the people around us by showing respect and courtesy. Our body language, our words, our time and our actions all indicate who or what we value. Here are some specific ways we show honor at school:

We honor those who came before us.
We honor authority.
We honor each other.

Does your child treat others with kindness? Does your child treat everyone equally? Is your child good at sharing? Does your child reach out to those who are new? These are just a few ways you can catch your child showing honor. We strive to align home and school to teach character.

If you do catch your child showing honor, we would love to hear about it.

As always, if I can assist you in any way, please call.

Sincerely,

Ziba Johnston 
Counselor
Elizabeth.Johnston@southlakecarroll.edu