For the last two years, Christ Episcopal School’s Student Council has made its mark on the Rockville community and beyond. Last year, our elected reps brainstormed various ways to help those in need. That exploration led to the big idea of hosting a Christ Episcopal Community Mini Mart. This project would present collected donations of toiletries, nonperishable foods, and clothing for free to whomever has a need. The event proved to be quite successful as we were able to serve the needs of 40 people in 12 hours.
Our newly selected Student Council representatives were eager to continue this project in the 2023-2024 school year. Students took data collected from the previous year and applied changes to this year’s Mini Mart in efforts of making this year’s event even better! Some changes included collecting school supplies in place of clothing, adjusting our hours to 7:00am-3:00pm, and enhancing motivations in our community to donate as many supplies as possible.
The adjustments paid off to say the least! On Saturday, May 18th, our Student Council and parent community came together to open a successful Mini Mart that was able to bless over 40 people.
We were pleased to see our marketing efforts pay off with shoppers coming from neighboring cities in the county and DC. The student council started the morning with over 1,000 items. By 3:00pm, almost all of the items were gone! Through our service project we met neighbors shopping for their family members in need, those who are new to the United States entirely, and those who are impoverished and simply needed a razor and some food that did not require cooking.
This event ignited a desire from our students to reach even further outside of our small CES bubble. Many students volunteered to take extra items to various locations in the county and even in Virginia after their volunteer shift was over.
To say that we are proud of our young leaders is an understatement. These students took on this project with a fire that could not and would not be put out. Though we are a small school they executed an event that shows clearly we have the “big heart” to match!
CES graduates leave with a deep sense of their responsibilities as members of the world community.”
Weeza Bullard, CES grandparent