A Sweet Tradition

There's a tradition at Brookstone that happens once a month, on Friday after the CHAMPS ceremony at chapel. It's a tradition the kids love, and it involves ice cream!

To back up a bit, CHAMPS is an award ceremony that recognizes students in each grade who have excelled academically, socially and have displayed excellent Christ-centered character traits for the month.

Following the ceremony, ice cream awaits for the CHAMPS recipients.

The ice cream treats are lovingly donated, prepared and served by our dear volunteer, Bob Lee, who has made this his special gift to students for the past two years.

Mr. Lee often has the help of his daughter and granddaughters (who are in high school and college), and who also enjoy coming to see the smiles on the kids' faces.

Nancy Turbeville, our Volunteer Coordinator said, "Bob has chosen to bless Brookstone in so many ways in his retirement, and we are especially thankful for his willingness each month to not only purchase the ice cream and toppings for more than 60 students, but to cheerfully serve them. His joy is evident in his smile, and his extended family has joined in this effort to make this special celebration happen each month."

All of us at Brookstone appreciate the people who share their time to make life a bit sweeter for our students. Thank you, Mr. Lee!

The mailing miracle

One of the roles of the Advancement Office is to communicate information to our supporters. A primary way we do that is through mailings. This week, we had nearly 2,500 letters to mail announcing our new location. The process for getting a letter delivered involves several steps: printing, sorting, folding, stuffing, sealing, sorting again, etc... It's a big job, and we couldn't do it without the help of volunteers.

Typically, we have one dedicated group from Matthews OPC who tackles the mailings. They're efficient and incredibly kind to Brookstone, often showing up and spending the whole day working together to finish the task.

We didn't have them for this week's mailing, and we weren't sure how it would unfold.

On Monday, a few volunteers from the parent group worked alongside two of our Charlotte Fellows, and they were able to complete about 25% of the mailing. On Tuesday morning, the remaining 75% of the work was staring us in the face, and we had absolutely no idea how it would get accomplished. Although it seemed daunting, the four Advancement Team members decided to simply start - taking it piece by piece.

Little did we know that God was sending us helpers.

Seth showed up. Mae came in with Nancy. Meg D. was helping in 1st grade and came after that. Meg H. was here for her lunch buddy's birthday, and she stayed to help. Lynn was here with her lunch buddy, and said she couldn't leave knowing we needed her. Artaevia, Debi and Valerie cheerfully strolled in to seal the envelopes. Elizabeth popped in for a few hours.

With each new face that walked through the door, we felt thankful. What a loving God we serve! He provides for Brookstone in the big and small ways, sending us exactly what we need. When our team wasn't sure how the next 30 minutes would look, we were amazed at the joyful and unexpected display throughout the day.

By 3 pm, the mailing was done! Each piece was neatly in it's bin according to zip code, ready for the post office.

It's a day our team won't forget. It's a lesson that will always be a good reminder.

Welcome, Charlotte Fellows!

On Monday, September 8th, Brookstone welcomed 10 Charlotte Fellows to work alongside us in this mission. They show up bright and early at our school every Monday morning from 8 am - noon and help us tackle many jobs.

Charlotte Fellows is a local initiative that disciples recent college graduates as they learn to use their gifts and talents to help meet the needs of our community.

Please join us in welcoming these interns to Brookstone.

To learn more about Charlotte Fellows, please visit: http://www.charlottefellows.org/

Gardening and Growing

Thank you to our volunteers, Kathleen Smith and Elizabeth Stamas, for helping us grow sweet potatoes and teaching us how fun it is to garden.

Thank you also for coming earlier in the school year to help us create all natural bird feeders. 

We love learning about the garden with you two!