Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Classrooms within Clark Elementary were filled Monday morning with cheerful and busy students eager to learn.

About 9:30 a.m. Monday, members of the historic Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church visited several classrooms from kindergarten to sixth grade celebrating the students’ academic effort and hard work.

Each teacher of the classes was also recognized and given gift cards in a festive gift bag as a token of the church’s appreciation for all that they do.

“We want the students to know that we care about them and the progress that they are making,” said AME Pastor Leodis Strong. “We are praying and supporting them in their endeavors, and we want the parents to know that we are in partnership.”

Strong said the whole process to put the gift card giving event on didn’t take long. Through their community efforts, they were able to put it on quickly with a very short turnaround time.

Interim Principal Dr. Exzealia Baptiste said AME is no stranger to Clark Elementary, being that the church adopted the school around 11 years ago and said this is not the church’s first time to give back to the students.

“They have been great partners to us from day one,” Baptiste said. “They sponsored pizza last year for our students and last month, they sponsored a trip to the EJI in Montgomery, Alabama, where they paid all expenses. They even brought lunch for everybody, and the kids had several options for lunch, not just chicken nuggets but cheeseburgers and chicken sandwiches as well.”

Baptiste said not only were the students taken care of during the event by the church but the parents who attended were also taken care of as well, at no cost.

“They even paid for the charter bus which was Neely Charter Service, so we didn’t go with the school bus. So, we want to thank them for that. On top of that, for Thanksgiving, they gave all of our students a turkey dinner including all the teachers as well and today, they are blessing our students with $25 gift cards.”

Strong said the idea behind the gift card giveaway stemmed from the members within the church and its affiliated program called The Authentic Brown Chapel Foundation and said the gift cards that the students received on Monday can be used at their local Walmart anytime because it’s a major commercial center in Selma, in terms of shopping.

“It doesn’t require a whole lot of transportation, it’s accessible and they were trying to make it easier for the kids and their parents to get somewhere where they have a lot of choices that are reasonably priced,” Strong said.

“I’m happy. I am just elated to be a part of our organization’s efforts, and being able to get the support of our own church, our own members, and most people this time of the year already have long lists filled with their own families, their own kids and to go beyond those lists, and include others and to do it in the spirit in which there was no hesitancy, it was seen as an opportunity to provide out a service and I am very proud of the who have taken the efforts this time of year as well to make sure that these young people have a bigger slice of what brings joy to their faces, joy to their hearts and I hope that their parents will be a little relieved.”

Strong told the Selma Times-Journal that he hopes that their efforts as a church and community organization will inspire other churches and local businesses to invest in schools, invest in the education for and of children and he encourages those in the community to support the staff, students, teachers including the interim principal of Clark Elementary on their ongoing academic success.