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Health & Fitness

Pinecrest High School Launches IGNITE Service Program

The Pinecrest Academy Campus Ministry department has launched IGNITE, a program of Christian service designed specifically for Pinecrest high school students, to help them develop servant leadership through projects focused on corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

“The creation of a comprehensive program to train our seniors in organizing their own service projects began during the 2012-13 school year,” said Tom McCabe, Campus Ministry Director at Pinecrest Academy. 

“We had 15 senior-run service projects, ranging from adoption of a low-income housing community, to hosting blanket and food drives, to organizing students to work at soup kitchens.  It was our first year of building the program and was a very good start,” he continued. 

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Thanks to the addition of Melissa Foley to the school’s Campus Ministry department, the team has been able to invest more time into the program, taking it to the next level – resulting in IGNITE.  With Foley’s passion and love of working with students, the new program is doing exactly what it was designed to do – ignite in students a concern for the needs of those around them and the desire spread the gospel message through acts of service.  

“This year, we have 18 senior projects, including: Angola Prison Mission; Senior Mission Trip to Nicaragua; Big Brother/Big Sister Tutoring; Big Brother/Big Sister Mentoring; “Senior” Prom for Elderly; Kickin’ It Soccer Tournament for Underprivileged Children; Music and Memory (bringing music to elderly); Pro-Life/March for Life; Change Your Oil, Change Your World; Heart Healers for Casey (gifts for heart patients); Overload (supplies/books to homeless); Random Acts of Kindness, Royalty for a Day (pampering children with special needs); Home to the Hospital (meals for parents with hospitalized children), Extreme Makeover (make a homeless man’s day), Runway for a Day (one day ‘Pure Fashion’ show for underprivileged girls), Clothing the Homeless, Seed2Feed (community garden), and Refugee Immersion Camp,” said Melissa Foley, IGNITE program coordinator.

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“The campus ministry team developed the IGNITE program specifically for Pinecrest students,” continued Foley. “Christ-like service is one of the most powerful ways to show youth the gospel in action. In fact, taking part in Christian service can be life-changing. It enables us to experience what it means to help people not because we want to be nice, or because we expect to get something in return, but because of a genuine connection we feel. Sincere Christian service is when those we serve see Christ in us--and when we discover Christ in them.”

During a recent Friday afternoon high school assembly, seniors took the stage to present their IGNITE projects to freshmen, sophomores and juniors, selling their cause with posters, Power Point presentations and music. All high school students were asked to select the service projects they’d most like to assist with. 

Project teams were assembled, and students will track their programs throughout the school year. At the close of the school year, an IGNITE event for parents and high school students will be held during which teams will present video documentaries of their year-long projects.

Pinecrest High School Principal, Ed Lindekugel, sees this program as an integral piece in fulfilling the school’s mission of Forming Christian Leaders Who Will Transform Society.  “Our increasingly individualistic and materialistic society has degraded our collective awareness of the benefits of serving others,” commented Lindekugel. 

“It is our hope that through this program, we will literally ignite in our students a renewed appreciation for a lifelong commitment to meeting the needs of our fellow man.”

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