"My wish is: Sunday Friends can always be here every day. That's what friends are."
— Sunday Friends
Child
|
Sunday at Noon:
Activity begins when the doors of Lowell Elementary School swing open for our children and parents. While parents attend a class on money management, parenting effectiveness or health and nutrition, volunteers and children engage in craft projects that serve the greater community: for example, creating gifts for convalescent home residents. And they initiate cooking activities.
|
 |
By 1:30, children are starting to serve the healthy food they have prepared. Volunteers are also helping children and their parents write illustrated thank you letters to our donors. Parents and older youths attend ESL classes. Other engaging activities include piano lessons, gardening, tending of the school grounds and board games that teach healthy eating, ecology or academics.
Everywhere you look you see children receiving encouragement and reinforcement from well-trained and highly-motivated volunteers as well as their parents. You hear laughter and you are apt to share in the hugs and the smiles.
Through
the Afternoon: The families' participation in our activities is rewarded. They earn tickets. The more they contribute, the more tickets they earn. They learn that giving your best pays off. The tickets they earn will be redeemed later in our on-site store, the Treasure Chest, which is stocked with basic necessities, toys and school supplies. Going shopping means making the most of the tickets you have. Those shopping trips teach everyone about budgeting. Most families choose to use our Sunday Friends Bank, saving their tickets over time - and even earning interest - to buy more expensive items, like bikes.
|
|
The
Home Stretch: Anticipation is high as families look forward to shopping in the Treasure Chest. Children take part in playful educational games with volunteers and learning and earning continue even as shopping is proceeding. Skill development and supportive interaction are also rewarded with tickets.
|
|
When their turn comes to shop, each family member is escorted one-on-one by a volunteer into the Treasure Chest. Volunteers help shoppers withdraw their tickets from the Sunday Friends Bank and make careful spending decisions. Parents and children learn financial responsibility. Parents gain self-esteem as they provide for their families through their own hard work. Children gain the confidence that they can earn what they most want and need. They leave the Treasure Chest carrying bags of treasures, beaming with joy.
|
|
|
|
The
Payoff:
Our families leave our program each Sunday night (between 6PM and 7PM) with a sense of self-reliance and family unity, having practiced full participation and thoughtful decision making. Children have been gently and lovingly guided by volunteers to express themselves fully, to interact with others positively and to recognize and develop the gifts they hold inside. We all discover that working together in community — giving, receiving and growing — fosters hope. Our families take home so much more than donated goods.
|
|
