CCES Encounters the Many Faces of Poverty,
by Richard Grimball

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An IB student participates in the Lapsits for Literacy
program by reading to a class of one-year-olds.


It is rare to experience poverty on the campus of Christ Church Episcopal School. The poverty we experience tends to be spiritual, when a feeling of separation from God comes from either tragedy or a distancing from the spiritual disciplines of prayer, worship, and reading the Bible.

Communities that are truly blessed with resources, such as ours, are called by God to share these blessings with others. It is also part of the mission of our school to reach out to others, beginning as early as the Lower School and extending through the Middle and Upper Schools. For these reasons, through our Community Service and classroom efforts, we deliberately bring our students face to face with those experiencing physical poverty. Beginning in the Lower School, we make a conscious effort to leave campus with our students and to drive them to communities in need of care, love, and the basic necessities of life.

To help facilitate and coordinate our efforts, CCES this year hired a full-time Community Service Director, Elizabeth Jarrett ’82. The decision has proven to be both positive and effective. As you catch a glimpse of the many activities that touch each of our school divisions, it will become evident that CCES is an example of outreach in Greenville, SC. It will also become clear that we are educating our students to become lifelong community servants and volunteers.

To underscore this message, in February Mrs. Jarrett took three students, freshmen Kate Stewart and Jennings Johnstone and sophomore Mary McArthur, to attend a symposium at the Washington International School Center for International Education entitled “Putting a Face to Poverty.” They came back with new knowledge and insight into the needs of the poor, and an invigorated commitment to fi nding ways to serve them through the school. This summer Mrs. Jarrett will also lead a school mission trip for 20 students to Pascagoula, Mississippi, where they will aid in the continuing hurricane recovery effort.

"A Little Child Shall Lead Them"


A fourth-grade student plays with a little princess at the
Child's Haven.

Of the many service programs in the Lower School, two that allow our young students to encounter the faces of poverty are A Child’s Haven and Meals on Wheels. These programs represent a hands-on approach where students actually visit and interact with community members.

A Child’s Haven is a therapeutic child development center for low-income children. Our students visit the 3 and 4-yearolds during their recess time, pushing them on swings, playing games of chase, digging in the sandbox with them, etc. At their annual Christmas breakfast at Embassy Suites, A Child’s Haven recognized CCES fourthgraders for their continued volunteerism. Along with Mrs. Jarrett, fourth-graders Brawley Crawford, Will Gross, Gia Wixler, and Savannah Klosowski accepted the award on behalf of their classmates.

The Meals on Wheels program also gives our young students a glimpse into the lives of the needy. Our fi rst through fourth graders deliver meals twice a month to 15 families on the “CCES route.”



“In the car on the way back to the school, it’s not unusual to hear a student say, ‘That apartment was very tiny. It makes me realize how lucky I am,’” remarked Lower School Chaplain Valerie Riddle, who accompanies the students on their rounds. “Or they may say, ‘She may be poor, but when I talk to her, she is just like you and me. We can laugh together.’” These encounters have also inspired students to want to do more for the families they serve. After viewing storm damage at one client’s home, a student involved his entire Boy Scout Troop in assisting her with chores and in decorating her house for the holidays.

Middle School Students Reach Out
In the Middle School the fi fth grade advisee groups sponsor five families through United Ministries throughout the year, providing gifts and cards for Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Valentine’s Day, and other occasions.

Sixth-graders work with Gracious Hearts / Helping Hands, an organization that assists the elderly with yard work or other small jobs. The students get excited about making a difference in someone’s life, seeing the smile on the face of someone they have helped, and the difference a clean yard can make! In fact, with the aid of their teachers, they brainstorm ways they can continue to serve these individuals throughout the year, for example, by sending cards, singing Christmas carols, and delivering gift baskets.

Seventh-graders hold a raffle in the fall and plan spring theme week activities to raise money for Episcopal missions in Haiti, to buy books for the schoolchildren there, and to support the Haiti horticulture project. Last year’s class contributed $5,000 to Haiti, and this year’s seventh-graders are on track to at least match that amount.

A Maturing Commitment in the Upper School
Upper School students fi rst encounter poverty with the annual freshman “Tour of Agencies.” The ninth-graders visit United Ministries, Place of Hope, the Free Medical Clinic, and Project Host soup kitchen. The students tour impoverished neighborhoods in West Greenville, then visit a neighborhood revitalized through community involvement.

Following the tour, freshmen are introduced to the John Wesley United Methodist Breakfast Kitchen, where they serve a hot breakfast to the homeless on a rotating basis twice a week beginning at 6:30 a.m. Despite the early hour, some students become so enamored of this service project that they continue to volunteer at the breakfast kitchen on their own.



Sophomores volunteer at the Sterling Recreation Center, tutoring youngsters in an after-school program there. The Rec Center has become the site of numerous senior projects, with students offering summer tennis and basketball clinics, even establishing and equipping a computer lab for students there.


Many sophomores also involve themselves in community efforts for their Tenth Grade Projects. This year students are teaching dance and art lessons, tutoring young Hispanic students, and collecting food for the animals at Concerned Citizens, among many communityminded projects. These projects teach students that it takes more than good intentions and “heart” to create successful community initiatives; it takes leadership and project management skills too.

An IB student reads to youngsters at a Simpsonville
Head Start Center.

For their group service project, International Baccalaureate (IB) juniors are visiting the Pleasant Valley Headstart Center and Golden Rule Headstart Center to participate in Lapsits for Literacy. Mrs. Jarrett is also planning a few days of onsite work for juniors at a Habitat for Humanity build.

Students "Get It"
It is perhaps symbolic that Senior Service Day falls during Senior Week, the week between exams and graduation. Senior Service Day is a way of reminding students that although their high school days may be over, their obligation to serve the community continues. It is a message that, clearly, CCES students “get.” Many of them incorporate a service component in their senior theses. Throughout their senior year, students also volunteer for Meals on Wheels and other projects, such as the Christmas toy collection in support of Shriner’s Hospital in Greenville, where the twin children of Upper School history instructor Kristi Ferguson have been patients. Classrooms incorporate service into the curriculum; an example is the group of Spanish students who travel to Lake Forrest Elementary to read to students whose primary language is Spanish. The Upper School Volunteer Club, numbering more than two dozen active members, participates on an ongoing basis in any number of volunteer opportunities, many of them occurring on weekends.

So if you see Elizabeth Jarrett, Valerie Riddle, or Middle School Chaplain Joe Britt, thank them, along with students and faculty at CCES, for all they do in the community. It is one thing to say we are a community of outreach through fundraising and food drives. It is quite another to witness the lives touched and changed by Christ Church Episcopal School students and faculty on a daily basis.

Author's Note:
Richard Grimball is the Senior Chaplain at CCES.