The students at Crescenta Valley Adventist School took part in the school’s annual Work-a-Thon Day on Sept. 20. This is the time when the entire student body – grades kindergarten through eighth – performs manual labor to improve their school campus and in return asks family and friends to donate money to the school.

Beginning at 9 a.m., the junior high students trimmed tree branches and did community service at a local church while third and fourth graders pulled weeds between a neighbor’s yard and the school and washed down a Victorian playhouse for the kindergarten class that was purchased from last year’s donations. Even the kindergartners were involved – they put red mulch around the school’s hillside letters that last year were improved upon by the then-kindergarten through fourth graders. They also passed out much needed water to other laboring students.

The most challenging endeavor of the year was undertaken by the school’s fifth and sixth graders. They learned how to improve the school’s long drive way. They lined up to get plastic coverings to protect their clothes, and paint rollers on extension sticks. They lined up along the driveway, six children to one bucket of Eco-friendly sealant.

Later in the day when parents came to pick up their children, the children’s voices could be heard, filled with pride and joy as they told their parents what they did for the school, pointing out which “spot” was theirs.

Part of what the students learned that day at Crescenta Valley Adventist School was what it takes to work and work well as a team. They also gained the knowledge that no job is too big or hard to accomplish when people work together.

As a reward for all the hard work, the students went on a field trip the following Friday to Zuma Beach.

Contributed by Geri SOFIAS

  Geri SOFIAS