Our school is unique in that we have started the first ever Junior Jefferson Awards program to promote volunteerism in the elementary and middle school grades. This month, the Junior Jefferson Awards committee is excited to announce the winner of a Junior Jefferson Award for outstanding volunteer work.
This RLCA 5th grader has worked tirelessly beside his father to benefit orphans in Haiti through a ministry his great-grandfather developed called Double Harvest. In partnership with that ministry, his immediate family developed a construction company called “Ashley’s Orphans” to assist orphanages in Haiti. This young man has visited Haiti 3 times, where he has handed out lollipops and played soccer with the children at an orphanage called Centre Loving Hands, and has even assisted in laying a foundation and building a school for the orphanage. He shared that he has especially enjoyed stuffing lollipops in a backpack or his pockets and handing them out to the hundreds of children who would come running out of their homes in the villages! He has also worked to collect baseball caps from his friends here in America to take to the children in Haiti in a project he called “Hats for Haiti.” His kindness and compassion toward these children, many of whom lost their parents in the devastating earthquake a few years ago, let his light shine brightly for Jesus. This student was nominated by his fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Heitzmann. We are very proud of you, Jacob VanWingerden; you are an inspiration to all of us!