Beginning Monday, January 16, La Cima Elementary Charter School, located at 800 Gates Avenue, kicked off a “Week of Service” in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday.

Teachers and scholars (the young students) worked collaboratively to identify service projects they could share with their parents, each other and the community. Service projects varied by grade-level and included:

• Kindergarten classes-- Organizing a canned food drive to support a local soup kitchen.

• 1st grade classes-- Writing persuasive letters as animals in a local shelter, convincing people to adopt them. The class will then prepare no-bake treats and deliver them to the animal shelter.

• 2nd Grade classes-- Developing a campaign for the design of a new playground in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

• 3rd Grade classes-- Writing letters and assembling care packages for United States veterans.

• 4th Grade classes-- Visiting a local nursing home to read stories related to the civil rights movement to senior citizens, and then asking the senior citizens to share their firsthand accounts of the civil rights movement as they experienced it.

The children’s Week of Service will culminate with a Community Circle, in which all of the scholars will share what they learned about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. why it is important to celebrate his life, and how La Cima’s Week of Service impacted them as change makers.