December 12, 2017
PACS Lower School Students Support “Kids First” Christmas Shoe Project
This Christmas season, Prince Avenue Christian Lower School supported a special local ministry. Students and families purchased much-needed shoes for children involved in Kids First, an outreach ministry founded by Larry and Anna Boling in 2003. Mr. Boling is the recently retired and much beloved former PACS lower school music teacher.
Lower school principal Becky Callaway explained that Prince’s collaboration with Kids First is helping to meet a long-standing goal held by Mr. Boling. She said, “The Christmas Shoe Project was developed to meet a specific need of the children Kids First serves whose shoes are often passed down from older brothers and sisters and worn until there is little left to lace together. Providing a quality pair of shoes will meet a need that most of these families cannot afford to provide for their children.”
The Christmas Shoe Project was conducted November 13 – December 1. Prince students and parents donated nearly 100 pairs of new shoes that have been wrapped and will be given to children whose parents requested them at the Kids First annual Christmas party on Friday, December 15.
Kids First serves well over 100 children with weekly attendance of 45 – 60 kids at Nellie B and 25 in East Athens at Tuckston United Methodist Church. Each program includes carefully and prayerfully crafted Bible lessons tailored specifically for elementary-aged children with little or no church background. The program also incorporates fun games, a hearty serving of food, and an abundance of love and hugs. The goal of Kids First ministry is to grow relationships with the children and lead them in a growing, life-long relationship with Jesus Christ.
Mrs. Callaway was enthusiastic about the PACS/Kids First partnership. “We are thrilled to be able to provide this opportunity for our students to minister to children in our own community whose basic needs often go unmet.”
PACS lower school students present Larry Boling with wrapped boxes of shoes for children in Kids First.
Pictured Left to Right: Brody Conner, Maggie Ross, Carter Foskey, Harper Mayne, Nate Murray, Mary Elizabeth Baxter, Samuel Florence, Riley Reeder, Larry Boling, Lilly Purcell, and Brody Rogers.