This holiday season, Lynchburg City Schools (LCS) students are leading the way with service projects and donation drives to uplift the local community. Read on to discover just a few of the ways our schools are helping their neighbors.
E. C. Glass Students Bake Holiday Treats for Park View Community Mission
E. C. Glass High School culinary arts students gave back to their community through the Lunchburg Express, a student-run food truck donated by Intuit in partnership with Lynchburg Beacon of Hope. They made Thanksgiving treat bags filled with fresh-baked desserts for Park View Community Mission, a local nonprofit that addresses food insecurity. Students prepared more than a thousand desserts for the occasion, thanks to funding from Intuit.
JROTC Students Help Lead Toys for Tots Drive
E. C. Glass and Heritage high school JROTC students helped run a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots drive this winter. They sorted through boxes of donated toys and prepared them for distribution to families in need. Cadets served their country through kindness, approaching the project with the same diligence and discipline they bring to their training.
Laurel Students Share Holiday Cheer with Centra Cancer Center
For the second year, Laurel Regional School students donated a Christmas tree to Centra’s Pearson Cancer Center for their Trees of Hope fundraising event. Each classroom helped craft the unique handmade ornaments. This meaningful experience allowed students with disabilities to give back to their community, express creativity, and bring joy to patients and families facing cancer.
Bedford Hills Students Collect 700 Items for Food Drive
Bedford Hills Elementary School students, staff, and family members collected more than 700 items for their Thanksgiving food drive. They compiled meal boxes, complete with turkeys donated by a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, for food-insecure families in the community. Motivated by friendly competition between grade levels, students contributed so many items that they were able to share extras with other LCS elementary schools.
Left: The E. C. Glass football team raised $2,500 for the Awareness Garden. Photo by Fractured Lens Photos. Right: The school’s volleyball team raised $1,400 for the Awareness Garden.
E. C. Glass Sports Teams Raise Nearly $4,000 for Awareness Garden
In October, the E. C. Glass football team raised $2,500 and the E. C. Glass volleyball team raised $1,400 for the Awareness Garden Scholarship Endowment, which supports students whose lives have been impacted by cancer or who plan to work in a cancer-related field.
E. C. Glass culinary arts students also contributed their talents to the Awareness Garden’s efforts to increase awareness and support for those affected by cancer. They catered the football team’s “pink dinner” fundraiser for the Awareness Garden in October. They also baked 250 cookies for the nonprofit’s annual “Lighting of the Garden” event in December. Paul Munro Elementary School students sang holiday carols at the event.
R. S. Payne Celebrates 100th Anniversary with Generosity
R. S. Payne Elementary School families are coming together to provide resources for community members in need. They’re celebrating the school’s 100th anniversary with a Centennial Food Drive this December, aiming to collect 100 food items per grade. They’ve also kept their little free pantry stocked with non-perishable food items, snacks, hygiene products, and household essentials throughout November and December.