Students Bring H.O.P.E. to Those in Need
I remember the first time I witnessed -- not the event itself, but the day before -- the event that Colorado Academy calls Students H.O.P.E. Walk into CA’s Newton Gymnasium 24 hours before H.O.P.E. begins, and you see dozens of students at work, folding and sorting tons (literally) of donated clothing, wrapping children’s holiday gifts, and setting up for a holiday party like no other.
The staging of this massive effort is impressive, and it is all the more so when you see the organization and collaboration that goes into this service project. This year’s H.O.P.E. leaders, Caroline Reisch and Carrie Fritzinger, set out take the event to a new level—and they achieved it with record donations, contributions, the addition of distributing children’s books, and more.
It is like the words of American writer and philanthropist Pearl S. Buck who said, “The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation." Indeed, this event has been a CA tradition longer than today’s H.O.P.E. volunteers have been alive.
Now in its 21st year, H.O.P.E. was started by three members of the CA Class of 1996. Students BJ Parks, Grant Turner, and Brad Connor launched the effort in the mid-90s as a part of their required service commitment. At the encouragement of Grant’s father, Bob Turner, the students turned to the Denver business community for underwriting and donations. The event was held in a downtown homeless shelter, and the students served approximately 200 people.
Tomorrow, on December 6, at CA, we’ll serve as many as 2,000 people. What those students started more than two decades ago is today the largest student-run service-learning project on the CA campus. Thanks to all of our student, faculty, and parent volunteers, as well as to our community supporters.
Through the years, this student effort reminds us that at times, the most important thing that teachers can do for students is to get out their way. For in the words of former first lady, Lady Bird Johnson, “Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.”
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