Our Neighborhood

A great door has opened for 29th and Yale into our neighborhood. We’re official “Partners” with our neighborhood elementary school, Hoover. A few local businesses and few churches are already partners with Hoover, but they need all the help they can get. This is historic. This congregation has a long history with Hoover. For many years our own Charlene Hosey was the secretary at Hoover elementary. Numerous children of our congregation have attended Hoover through the years, and it was our first meeting place while our current building was being constructed. Just ask Marvin McKissick or Marie Herrin what it was like to worship at Hoover. Marvin will tell you how hot it was to worship in their gymnasium with no air conditioning.

What does being a “Partner” with Hoover mean? We can join with Hoover in strengthening the quality of education there. One way we do this is by participating in the mentorship program. Members of our congregation go to Hoover once a week to mentor students there. What does being a mentor mean? It means spending time with a student and showing you care. It can mean being a paired reader with a child who has no one else to read to, or it can mean pairing up with a lunch buddy. The coordinator of this program told us kids who have a mentor start doing better in school because they know there is an adult who cares for them. What a great opportunity to show the love of Christ in our community.