VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

Jay Height:
Hi. I’m Jay Height here in Shepherd Community, outside on our playground. You see kids in the background. We’re excited to have students here. Students at our elearning pods off site. Lots of kids, and we are thankful for that. Last week was September 11th, and I thought back of the day there at Shepherd Community, at our old location, and that morning and all of the reports. And I thought of the days and weeks right after September 11th and what that meant for America, and I found what I think is many comparisons to today. We have a great battle that we’re in. We’re fighting COVID and all of the challenges that go with that and the economic downturn that’s impacting our families in ways that are so intense, and the continued battle with COVID ravages our neighborhood.

Jay Height:
But what I remember is that many folks stepped forward to respond, and we’re asking you to respond in a way to volunteer. We need help. On Mondays, we need help putting together our food bags. On Wednesdays, we need help with food distribution. If you’d like to tutor a student online, we can use help. We have a lot of work to help our kids catch up to the learning loss that happened in these past several months. There are ways that you can make a difference and to step forward and fight back against this scourge that is leaving many, many folks impacted for some time. But we can make a difference, and we’re seeing that difference. You see the difference in the lives of those behind me, and there are many more. And those names that we talk about have faces and they’re real people, and you can help them.

Jay Height:
Will you reach out and talk to our folks in the volunteer department and say, “Hey, I want to help.” Call Phil Edwards. Email him, Phile@shepherdcommunity.org, and say, “I want to help. I want to be part of a solution.” Whether it’s packing a food box or making a phone call to a neighbor or tutoring a kid online, you can help. Together, we’re going to make a difference and these kids are going to have a brighter future because of you. And together with Shepherd Community, we’re going to advance forward. This is the road to recovery. Come join us.