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One of our most “hands-on” local missions for the past several years, and an important part of the Outreach Ministry at FPC, is the Fairborn Primary School (FPS) Partnership.  Once we realized that well over half (in fact, as many as 65%) of the children at this huge local elementary school with over 1700 students in kindergarten through third grade are below the poverty level, it seemed that there were an abundance of opportunities to get involved and to enhance the lives of those children and their families.  The school staff (principal, vice principal, guidance counselors, and nursing staff) have been wonderful about helping us identify those opportunities.  Largely through the donations of church members, but also with the support of local grants, First church’s FPS Mission Partnership is responsible for a wide variety of programs and projects throughout the school year, including:

Helping Hands:   During the first two weeks of the school year, church volunteers assist the young students in finding their way from the school buses to their classrooms in the mornings, and back to their buses after school.

School Supplies:  Donations provide book bags and school supplies for needy children.  (The average cost of a set of school supplies is now over $30 per child!)

School Clinic:  Purchasing and providing supplies, equipment, shelving, and even a golf cart (now known as “The Skyhawk Shuttle”) for transporting sick and injured children from the playground or along the more-than-one-mile-long hallways have all been projects for the clinic.

The “NBA” (Never Been Absent) Program:  Church members collect pop can tabs to purchase prizes awarded to children with perfect attendance.

COSI Programs:  For three years, the FPS Partnership funds provide the $1000 or more necessary to bring an all-day program by COSI (Center of Science and Industry) in Columbus to the approximately 350 third-grade students.  Church volunteers set up the various learning centers, help to staff them, and load everything – even a life-sized fiberglass cow! -- back into the COSI truck at the end of the day.

The Boutique:  New and used clothing, shoes, socks, underwear, etc. as well as coats, gloves, and mittens and even hand-made (by church volunteers) fleece blankets and denim quilts are distributed to needy children.  Display shelves were also purchased and volunteers lovingly help to organize the boutique so that the children can select items they need in their sizes.

Vehicle Day:  Church volunteers help to staff “Vehicle Day” to give the children the opportunity to learn about (and sit in!) an ambulance, a police car, a military Hummer vehicle, a race car, a garbage truck, etc.

The Hope Foundation Garage Sale:  Items donated for this sale allowed the purchase of 40-pound packages of food which are distributed to 100 needy families every Saturday.

Kindergarten Field Trip to U.D. performance:  For many of these 350 kindergarten children, this performance of “The Elves and the Shoemaker” at The University of Dayton was their first-ever opportunity to see a show like this!  We donated $600 to sponsor the trip and purchase the tickets.

Box Tops for Education:  Collecting and cutting out these labels from various grocery projects provides funds for the purchase of playground and physical education equipment and balls for learning to play various team sports.

Reading Program:  Several church members volunteer regularly (usually about once per week) to read with the same student(s) throughout the school year, at the request of specific classroom teachers.

Library Aides:  Other church members help as volunteers in the school library and have recently completed the huge task of taking inventory of all of the books.  One of the main reasons this is so helpful is that the Fairborn Schools have only one librarian on staff, and she spends only one day per week at FPS.

Denise Lo Cicéro is the staff liason to the FPS Partnership.  You can reach her at the church office on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, or by sending an e-mail via this website.  She will be happy to provide you with contact information for the volunteer(s) heading up the specific program(s) you’re interested in learning more about