A Heart for Art

Faith Lutheran Church in Clay, Alabama is a Community Partner of nearby Clay Elementary School. We provide for needs in the health room, gather gifts and food at Christmas, and provide materials and labor for their outdoor beautification days.  Recently our members gathered art supplies for Clay’s art teacher, Jessica Davis.

Clay Elementary has been without an art teacher for several years.  This year the City of Clay generously provided the funds for an art teacher’s salary, providing art education for every student each week.  Because her salary wasn’t paid for by the local county school system, Jessica wasn’t eligible for the state classroom supply allotment.  Her classroom was big but there were few art materials.

In December 2019 the Art for Heart campaign was born, headed by Faith member, Amy LaRue.  We began collecting needed art supplies from the teacher’s web site wish list and funds to purchase additional items.  The project continued through Valentine’s Day, providing a trunkful of supplies and over $1000.00.  A $250 Thrivent Grant supplemented the donated funds.  Jessica created an Amazon Wish List for us and the desired supplies were easily purchased.  The supplies were displayed for the congregation and blessed by Pastor Cook during Sunday Worship before making their way to eager children.   A packed SUV delivered the supplies to an amazed and joyful art teacher.  Her students made thank you valentines for Faith Lutheran members, showing off their talents and creativity.  She later tagged our Facebook page with pictures of the cards.

Being a Community Partner with Clay Elementary has been a blessing to our church, as we help them meet the needs of Clay families.  We thought we were adopting them, but as their principal, Dr Finkley, told their PTA in September, “We have adopted Faith Lutheran.”
Faith is truly blessed to have found a heart for art.