CURTISSTRANGE

ELEMENTARYSCHOOL

Wesley is a community partner with Curtis Strange Elementary School, meaning we work closely with the school and hold monthly meetings throughout the school year to address any needs that the school may have. The school has 80% of the children who attend the in-poverty situations, so we try to support them and the school in many different ways throughout the school year, many of these families have many different situations that these small children have had to deal with such as death of a parent, homelessness, living with grandparents or being immigrants and not knowing English as their first language. The staff at Curtis Strange are trauma trained to deal with many different situations that the children may have had to deal with. Mission projects that participate in to help the school are:

School Supply Collection

Throughout the month of August, we collect school supplies for the children who attend, many parents cannot afford to purchase school supplies for the children.

We collect many different supplies to help the children have a successful school year with having needed supplies to complete their class work.

Undie Sunday

One Sunday after the school year starts, we hold Undie Sunday where we collect Underwear and pants and socks for the children of the lower grades. Underwear is used in case a child has an accident or something spilled on them, and they do not have a change of clothes at the school to change into. It helps the child be able to change quickly after the incident when guardians are working and unable to bring a change of clothes to the school.

Winter Gear Collection

With so many children in poverty guardians do not always have extra money to purchase winter gear for their children. We collect in November snowpants, boots, hats and mittens and some years coats. The children are not allowed to play in the snow on the playground if they do not have snowpants, by supplying snow pants more children will be able to play and enjoy the snow.

Hats and mittens are used for children who forget theirs or do not have any on those cold days of winter. Think of how easy it is for us as adults to lose mittens/gloves every winter and children lose them easier than we do.

And More...

Every year we pick several families from the school and adopt them for Christmas. We provide each person within the family unit 2 gifts, adults included. We provide the food for a Christmas meal and for breakfast and lunch for the time the children are off school. With 80% of the school in poverty all children who attend the school receive free lunch and breakfast so while they are off for Christmas break the families that we adopt get those meals included. We hang cards for food and gifts on a tree in our narthex on the Sunday before Thanksgiving for people to pick and help or donate. We also collect money to help pay for the gifts if you would like to help but you yourself are in need and cannot afford to buy a gift.

Wesley volunteers help the children shop and wrap gifts that they purchase at the school for family members. We also help make crafts for them to sell at the school during this time.

Saturday Academy is held once to twice a year, once in either March or April depending on when Easter is not and in October. Saturday Academy is a program for the children who volunteer to come to school on Saturday morning from 9-12, during this time the children attend school for enrichment to help with their grades and understanding and improvement. The children eat breakfast and lunch with us during that time in which we prepare and serve. Wesley volunteers also teach life skills to the students, in the past we have taught them how to tie knots, first aid, sewing, giving change without a calculator, dance, knitting and crocheting as some of the activities that we have provided.

In the past we have helped with parent curriculum nights where we have served pizza to the parents and children who were in attendance. We helped with field days at the school. We have helped with afterschool help with tutoring and have been mentors to students at the school 1 hour a week during the lunch hour. There are always opportunities to help these wonderful students at Curtis Strange, they are the children who live in the surrounding area of our church as Curtis Strange is our neighborhood school to the church. The Children are our future by showing our love to the school we are showing hundreds of children in our local community God’s love and that people in the community love and care for them even if they don’t always feel that due to their difficult circumstances in them.

Interested in Serving?

We would love for all of our parents to be a part of our Kids Ministry. Pick up an application from the Check-In table and help make our church a great place for kids and their families to be!

4600 60th St. | Kenosha, WI 53144 | Phone: 262-654-8122 | Email: wesleyumc@kenoshawesley.org