Families struggling to pay for their students’ curricular material fees received a belated Christmas present on Monday night at the HCCSC Board of School Trustees meeting, as Huntington First Church of the Nazarene (HNAZ) raised a total of $10,000 to donate to HCCSC to help families with the fees.
The process for determining how the donation will be distributed is underway, but no funds have been distributed at this time. Families receiving funds from the donation will be notified of their selection once the allocations have been determined.
HNAZ Lead Pastor Bobby Kemp was present at the board meeting to present the corporation with the donation check. Kemp noted his church aims to make Christmas merry for more each year, and the donation project was one of the main ways the congregation accomplished that.
“This year, in light of all that has been going on in our world, we felt it more important than ever to bless others and specifically as locally as possible,” Kemp said. “One of the ways we encouraged our congregation to do that was by giving monetarily during Advent to help families who were unable to pay their curricular fees. Our hope is that for these families, experiencing the forgiveness of this debt will help free them financially in a tough year, that they will see a local church that cares for them and that they will hopefully get a chance to see and experience that forgiveness is possible for the whole of their lives.”
Kemp added that the donation was separate from the congregation’s regular tithing fund and was raised through a special collection and match from a donor.
“One specific offering we took that went directly toward this initiative was after our outdoor Christmas Eve service in which the whole community was invited, and on their way out of the parking lot, we had volunteers collecting donations for this,” Kemp said. “A tremendous blessing was when a family in our church wanted to match dollar for dollar what we raised that resulted in the $10,000 total offering. In what has been a trying year, we hope this will be a little good news and a hopeful reminder that there are people who care and are committed to our community.”
HCCSC Superintendent Chad Daugherty, who accepted the donation check from Kemp at Monday’s board meeting, was exceedingly thankful for the thoughtfulness displayed by HNAZ’s community.
“HCCSC is grateful for the generous donation given by the congregation of the Nazarene Church to assist families in need for (curricular material) fees during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Daugherty said.