Giving in Action at Great Hearts Christian Academies

Great Hearts Christian Academies December 15, 2025 -

In this season of giving, Great Hearts Christian Academies supported Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian humanitarian organization. The academies collected items to fill 161 shoe boxes with gifts and toys for children around the world who are in need for the Operation Christmas Child project.

According to Executive Director Toyin Atolagbe, the initiative was made possible through the collective efforts of the entire school community. “This year we’ve partnered with our parent service organization to help us get the shoe boxes and, of course, the children told their parents about this drive. The whole school has been involved in gathering donations, not just from themselves, but from friends and from family members to fill up these shoe boxes.”

Families collected toys, school supplies, and hygiene items that were brought to the school, where the middle school students stepped up to play a leadership role in the project. “We have them helping us fill up the shoe boxes,” shared Atolagbe. “The verse for the year for our middle schoolers is 1 Timothy 4:12. ‘Make sure that no one looks down on you because you’re a child. Instead, use yourself as an example in conduct, in speech, in love, and in purity.’ And so, for us, as we build our middle school culture, we want them to be an example for the world out there by living their lives virtuously in service to other people.”

The shoeboxes were filled with items appropriate for the age and gender of the intended recipients. “We pray for the recipients of the shoe boxes as they are being made, and they’re just making that connection with whoever this child will be before the shoe boxes are taken to the Samaritan’s first head office,” explained Atolgbe.

Samaritan’s Purse distributes the shoe boxes to children in need around the world, especially in impoverished or crisis-affected areas. Great Hearts Christian Academies know that initiatives like this one promote acts of generosity, inspire a heart of compassion, and foster global awareness for the school community.

Great Hearts Christian Academies is a faith-based non-profit organization (separate from Great Hearts public charter schools) that is committed to creating the best Christian academies in the country. Great Hearts Christian Academies unite the three institutions that have preserved the heritage of freedom and virtue in the West for the last three millennia: the family, the Christian church, and classical, liberal arts education. The Great Hearts Christian Academies program integrates Christ-centered faith formation with the proven classical model that has made Great Hearts the national leader in classical education.

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