Mass Volunteer Day shows how charity can begin at school

Twelve-year-old Nick Frost has no clue about the neighborhood’s risk ranking or the fact that residents have a 1-in-9 chance of becoming a crime victim within a year, according to FBI statistics. But he sees bars on the windows and men sprawled on the sidewalks. He thinks it’s scary.

Many of the sixth- and seventh-graders on the bus share Nick’s startled reaction as the bus pulls up to Variety Early Learning Center, which serves 135 impoverished children at D Street and Adams Avenue.

Within an hour, Nick’s preconceived notions fall away as a trio of giggling 4-year-old boys chase him around the room.

“Oh, it’s so much fun,” Nick says as the boys romp around his legs. “The kids just need someone to play with. Kids are just kids.”

That kind of realization is what Faith Lutheran aims for on Mass Volunteer Day, a tradition started six years ago by Principal Sarah Heislen.

On Friday, the school sent 600 student volunteers to 35 charities across the Las Vegas Valley.

Some cleaned up graffiti. Others tangoed with senior citizens at Opportunity Village. One group prepared meals for poor children at Three Square food bank.

“We are so blessed (at Faith Lutheran), and I really felt compelled to show them how to give,” Heislen says. “People can give their money. We want them to learn to give of their time and talents.”

Volunteering with children is always the most popular work.

“Who wants to work with the babies?” day care Director Ruby Collins asks students when they arrive.

Half the students raise their hands.

“We can’t all work with babies,” teacher June Uhlig says.

The day starts quietly but students soon fall into a natural rhythm, playing with the children from 2 months to 5 years old.

“And they get attached,” Uhlig says of her Faith Lutheran students after asking seventh-grader Alex Rodriguez whether he wants to switch to another classroom.

He shakes his head sideways and continues showing a 4-year-old boy how to hold the scissors to cut out a drawing of Martin Luther King Jr.’s head.

Alex spent the previous hour with dinosaur toys in a mock battle with other boys and their plastic helicopters. Across the room, four girls gossip at a table, others don dresses and tiaras, and two boys play computer games.

“I’m really going to enjoy coming back next year,” sixth-grader Audrey Walker says.

Some don’t wait but pick up community service on their own, realizing the benefit, Uhlig says.

One boy, speaking at the day’s closing ceremony in Faith Lutheran’s chapel, comes to this conclusion on his own.

“In retrospect, they helped us more than we helped them,” says the boy, who volunteered at Opportunity Village, which was created to help people with disabilities in Las Vegas.

Contact reporter Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.