By Izzie McLawhorn, Shield Editor-in-Chief
Every year, NRCA engages students in grades K-12 in a schoolwide community service project. These opportunities give NRCA students, staff, and families a chance to give back to the local community and uplift other organizations and support groups in the area.
During the 2023-24 school year, NRCA partnered with Addis Jemari, a nonprofit organization, to host a sneaker drive. This donation event met the needs of children and students in Ethiopia and was able to provide shoes as well as school supplies. In 2022, NRCA hosted a schoolwide food drive where students collected and then donated over 30,000 cans of food to the Raleigh Dream Center.
This year, NRCA is partnering with Foster Hope of North Carolina. Stephan and Joy Boutin, Founder and Secretary of the organization, spoke at middle and high school chapel services on Thursday, Oct. 3.
During Chapel, the Boutins shared their family story about their journey through the foster care system and their two biological and eight adopted children. They also discussed how they serve within their nonprofit organization and how NRCA students are able to actively support them by providing tangible items to aid the children in foster care.
Stephan Boutin explained that when children are removed from their homes due to safety reasons, “they do not have time to pack, and most of the time, they do not even return. They just leave with the clothes on their back.” By bringing in donations, NRCA can help ease the children’s transition into foster care.
NRCA high school students stay actively involved inside and outside of the classrooms. This past summer, senior Reese Ritter volunteered at Royal Family Kids Camp, where he first met the Boutins. “Royal Family Kids Camp is a weeklong camp for six- to 11-year-old foster kids,” said Ritter. This week allows children to leave their foster homes and experience a traditional summer camp full of fun activities like archery, sports, and crafts.
After serving at camp, Ritter wanted to continue working with the Boutins and involve NRCA in a service opportunity. “Just seeing the impact that the ministry had, I felt like there is a lot that our school could do because, in the past, we have done a lot for the organizations we partnered with, like Addis Jemari [and] the canned food drive. Every year we just bring so much, and I thought this community could really be impacted by our donations,” said Ritter.
All students are encouraged to donate different items, “It could be daily items, like toothbrushes, toothpaste, hair products, or it could be leisure stuff like activity books or coloring, things that they don't really have a lot of access to because of their limited resources,” said Ritter. The goal of this drive is to “...[give] them the stuff that they don't have right now,” according to Ritter. In this way, NRCA can support the children and foster families in our local community.
Ritter brought Foster Hope of NC to Josh Leonard, Dean of Spiritual Formation and Discipleship, in May of 2024, when they brainstormed ideas of how NRCA could best support the nonprofit organization. Leonard said, “The vision is, what can we do to help that community, the church, the local church, to participate in those camps and then on top of that, what can we do to help to change what's going on in the foster care system?”
Through partnership with NRCA, Foster Hope of NC hopes to build resources and expand outreach. “We're going to have our first training event next month where we are going to ...offer free training for caregivers, childcare workers, [and] social workers about trauma-based intervention,” said Joy Boutin.
In the past, NRCA students have spent part of their summers volunteering with the Boutins as they partnered with For the Children ministry and Cross Assembly of Raleigh for Royal Family Kids Camps. NRCA students have previously helped build stage props, produce films, and take photos. Ritter said, “Working at the camp was such an impactful experience for me as well, to see how much we were really changing their lives in just five days. I really hope that a lot of other people find ways to serve within Foster Hope of NC because there is just so much that they do and so much good that they do [for] people who really need it, and [the ministry] could really benefit from people just helping them any way they can.” Students eager to help beyond the donation drive can find volunteer opportunities on Foster Hope of NC’s website.
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