Engaging With Your Local School
By Nathan Hoag, Sacred Grace Englewood
Practice
Identify and locate the school(s) closest to you.
Inquire about the demographics, needs, assets, and liabilities of that school.
Discover existing opportunities to serve.
Start a service opportunity where it doesn’t already exist.
Volunteer for the 2023 Englewood Holiday Store on Saturday, December 9.
Participate by donating a gift online.
Our schools are on the front lines of our neighborhoods. Teachers and staff interact with the full range of residents in most neighborhoods and are often the first to connect with students and parents in their most difficult moments. Schools are where many students get the majority of their nutrients for the day, the knowledge they need to develop and mature, and the relational skills they need to interact safely and healthily with the world around them.
It is for those reasons the Englewood Holiday Store has been operating in and through our local schools for over 10 years.
The Englewood Holiday Store is an annual event that aims to make the holiday season affordable, attainable, and memorable for Englewood families. Our community sets up a retail space in a local school where we sell new items valued at $25 for $5 each. Just like at a regular retail store, parents and guardians choose from a wide variety of gifts for children 0-18. The Holiday Store offers Spanish and Arabic translation, free gift wrapping, childcare, outerwear, groceries, and for the first time this year - diapers and wipes. This December, The Englewood Holiday Store will serve 750 children from 250 families!
The Holiday Store is just the beginning. It is an initial point of contact to engage with families and support them beyond the Store. It’s how we begin significant relationships with our neighbors, classmates, and fellow parents.
The holidays create a coalescence of needs, celebrations, challenges, and beauty. Our schools are often the conduit for the confluence of our neighbors and their needs. The Holiday Store is a beautiful way to begin to build relationships by engaging with your local school.
Nathan Hoag is the Parish Pastor for Sacred Grace Englewood. Nathan serves on the Advisory Board of Cafe 180 and Change The Trend, as a Chaplain to the Englewood Police Department, on the Chamber of Commerce Board, and received the Englewood Citizen of the Year award in 2021.
