Each year, FC takes one day out of the year to go and serve at multiple locations throughout the city of Fresno. The Feather will be highlighting each location that students will be serving at on FC Serve Day. This piece highlights, the Kepler Neighborhood School.

One of the many ways Fresno Christian helps serve the city is through one day which allows the school to help out their community and show the power of God’s love through acts of kindness. Serve Day takes place on March 2, and allows students to take a full day of school off to serve. This year, students will help out places such as Community Food Bank, The Discovery Center, and Lanna Coffee Co.

Fresno Christian also offers help to other schools around the city, one in particular, tries to inspire K-8 students to find passion and joy in learning.

Kepler Neighborhood School allows students to discover their interests and connect them to real world opportunities and experiences. They teach kids to use their passions to help others in their community and even those around the world.

The center of Kepler’s program is Service-Learning, which combines academic work with meaningful service activities. This program lets students use the material they learned in class in community service projects.

Dorina Gilmore Young has two kids who attend Kepler, and enjoys the way the school uses Service Learning and is really centered around service projects.

“Service Learning is one of the reasons I chose the school, and I think it’s really exciting to see kids embracing different ways that they can serve in the community,” Young said. “They have worked in the community garden downtown, they’ve helped out at some local businesses, and even think about how the students might be able to serve people in the world. I think it’s a great learning experience for my kids.”

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Each class engages in at least one large scale project. From kindergarteners going to a local senior center, to eighth graders participating in the Fresno Rescue Mission, the students experience ways of giving back to the community in ways that are meaningful for them and ways that involve their class skills.

Kepler provides many unique opportunities that traditional schools don’t, like music classes, martial arts, and even gourmet lunches from Revolution Foods. Kepler joined the food revolution to give students nutritious and inspiring meals every day.

One of the things that second grader Nathanael Benedict likes most about Kepler is getting to hang out with friends in his classes and other activities.

“I get to do math in class with my friends and it’s super fun,” Benedict said. “My favorite subjects are science and math. My favorite elective is judo, and we learn how to flip and throw people for self defense.”

Fresno Christian has volunteered at Kepler for Serve Day for two years by hanging out with the kids and helping them with their lessons. This being the third year, FC students will help organize some library books in their new library and also help advertise a new TK program.

Marissa Parker, ‘17, participated at Kepler for Serve Day last year because she wanted to try something new. She enjoyed spending time with the kids and helping them in their classes.

“I loved getting to help the kids with their activities and getting to know them,” Parker said. “I really loved interacting with the kids in their classes. I signed up for Kepler again this year because I thoroughly enjoyed it last year and wanted to help out.”

Principal Christine Montanez first joined the Kepler staff in 2013 as a music teacher. She appreciates FC students visiting and serving the school on Serve Day. She especially enjoys seeing the interactions between FCS and Kepler students.

“There was a time where out in the courtyard FCS students were helping with the stations for third grade Habitat Day, and I saw FC students fall in love with the kids, so it was cool to see them happy to help and serve,” Montanez said. “It’s really neat to see the students be very respectful to our younger kids and give them someone to look up. For that one moment they’re like a mentor to them.”

Kepler holds around 300 students in their small school complex they’ve owned for four years. In April, the school will move into a century-old building called Parker-Nash. That expands classroom sizes from 400 sq ft to up to 1000 sq ft, and allows about 100 more students to attend the school.

Serve Day takes place on March 2, and will last most of the school day. Make sure to check out our media to see what we are doing that day.

For more articles on community service, read FC Serve Day: Poverello House.

This writer can be reached via Twitter @schultz_kamryn and via email: Kamryn Schultz.