Dear Charger community,
For the last nine summers, Providence Day has hosted a Freedom School. This is a treasured part of who we are as a school and one of the highlights of our year, particularly during the summer.
We have continued to work to support our partnership with Freedom School throughout the school year and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the ways we have supported Freedom School this year include:
- Leading our third annual Freedom School Supply Drive throughout the year. Even with an early end to the typical collection period, we totaled 142 boxes of donations which is the most we have ever collected. We were appreciative of the opportunity to partner with Belk, Pair Necessities, and Charlotte Prep as we collected this year. This will ultimately cut over $11,000 from the budget of Freedom School Partners. The supply items have been taken to Freedom School Partners as they prepare to serve the families in Charlotte this summer.
- The Lower School continued with the Lower School Supply Drive at the end of the year and was able to take several carloads of gently used school supplies to Freedom School Partners in order to supplement their inventory.
- The Moore family organized a book drive during the time of quarantine that resulted in 1,400 summer book donations. Providence Day also delivered 20 boxes of books that were collected throughout the year.
- Providence Day also donated about 4,000 water bottles in the last week to allow for hydration during Friday enrichment activities.
This summer will look very different from past summers for Freedom School. In an effort to safely serve families, Freedom School will host pop-up sites around Charlotte. Sites will combine and will be located across Charlotte to be closest to the neighborhoods where the scholars live. This summer, our site will be combined with Christ Church and will take place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other Friday at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library on Independence Boulevard. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be a drive or walk-through model to get resources and snacks to 100 scholars at each site. Every other Friday will be a time for enrichment activities.
There have been limits placed on the number of volunteers for sites to adhere to safety protocols. We are happy that this will allow our own Teen Board to participate, but we will not have additional site-based volunteer opportunities available. If you are interested in volunteering in other ways or at different sites who do not have partners, please look at the opportunities on Volunteer Hub.
One tangible way that you can contribute this summer if you would like to assist with our plans to provide healthy snacks for our site. Snacks will feed 100 children and are needed on seven dates throughout July for our site. We are also looking to help out some sites that do not have site partners to provide snacks. Please contact Katie Carmichael to join this effort, or if you have any questions about Freedom School.
Thank you for your ongoing support of this critical element of our school's commitment to our mission of social responsibility.
Cheers,
Dr. Glyn Cowlishaw