A lot of people may be hearing about WOW Kids and think it's cool and all, but don't know the whole story. WOW Kids has sprung up from the result of two years of outreach in East Lake starting in 2010. I was a freshman in college and I wanted to be a teacher. I was at a conference and I happened to sit next to Ms. Rock, an inner-city middle school teacher at East Lake Academy. I volunteered there for a whole year every Friday. My love for East Lake grew and when I had to pick a school to intern at for fifteen weeks, I chose East Lake Elementary (You can read about that adventure here).
Honestly, we could write a book about everything that has led up to starting WOW Kids. WOW Kids is a part of Young America Ministries and they were looking to expand into East Lake the same time we wanted to do more to help East Lake! We would have never have gotten the building for WOW Kids if my friend Sammie hadn't posted a picture of VBS in Emma Wheeler on Facebook. I saw that picture and went to help and there we met Brandon Bacon who helped us get the building. God's timing has been so perfect. He's blessed us so much. We have partnered with the city of Chattanooga to launch WOW Kids and Hamilton County is letting us use a whole school building for tutoring! Talk about amazing!
I wanted to post some pictures of these last two years in East Lake so everyone can look back on what led up to WOW Kids being launched. It's been an incredible journey and I am so excited about October 16th!
Volunteering at East Lake Academy
Passing Out Clothes in East Lake Courts
My Internship at East Lake Elementary
Saturday Mentoring Trips
Missions Trip to the Atlanta Dream Center
Paris Akins is currently a college student pursuing a degree in Education. She loves diversity, Jesus, and middle schoolers. She spends most of her time at school, helping with Chattanooga's Urban WyldLife, and with her kiddos in Emma Wheeler. She also blogs over at Attempting the Impossible.
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