AF
Ailey Fang
  • Class of 2018
  • Guangzhou

Ailey Fang participates in annual Harvest Hope

2014 Dec 8

On November 15th, the annual Harvest Hope event took place at the A.J. Katzenmaier School in North Chicago. Ailey Fang joined a group of over 45 LFA students and numerous parent volunteers to participate in this community-wide service learning project.

Harvest Hope is one of the many collaborative events held between North Chicago Community Partners and LFA. The event is considered LFA's Thanksgiving service initiative. Every year, members of LFA gather packages of stuffing, macaroni and cheese, brownie mix, and cans of fruit and vegetables for the Harvest Hope food drive.

On Friday, November 14th, the day before Harvest Hope, the LFA football team packed the NCCP truck with boxes of food. The next day, LFA student and parent volunteers set up a pop-up grocery store at the AJK School and served a pancake breakfast to the young children. Afterwards, LFA's Science on the Fly team, a club dedicated to exploring science through experiments, presented a lesson on making film canister rockets.

LFA's Service Learning Director Sarah Collins calls the event a huge success. "We as a community exceeded our goal for the food drive; we brought thirty percent more food than we had promised. Each family left with about three or four full bags of groceries. There were smiles all around. I give all my thanks to Ailey and the other students for making this day possible."

Jennifer Grumhaus, the Executive Director of NCCP, comments that the event made a lasting impression on the students from the A.J. Katzenmaier School. "Their faces light up when they are matched with their LFA friend...they now look forward to this annual event. The one-on-one attention develops important academic and social skills. Honestly, this day was filled with the perfect combination of learning, fun and neighbors helping neighbors. The event allows students from two very different school communities to unite and provide opportunities for both groups to learn and grow."