IMPACT Kids

IMPACT Kids

We provide an after school program for K-6th grade students at Hawthorne Elementary School.

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After School & Summer Programs“We are living proof God hears our prayers for the manpower, resources and love we need to serve our families in a way that is a blessing to them and brings glory to God!” -Leah Pickard

by Leah Pickard

Ana is a 5th grader who is intensely passionate about robotics! I saw this the first time I met Ana at Hawthorne’s “Meet the Teacher Night.” I approached Ana’s mother with my clip-board in hand and my spiel about our program and then asked if she would like me to add her to our email-list of families interested in the after-school program. Her mom listened with a kind, patient expression, and when I finished she looked down at Ana, who feverishly translated into Spanish what was just said. Then Ana stopped and looked up to me with a spunky expression and said, “Wait, what do you actually do in the program?” I explained that one of the things we are excited to incorporate into the IMPACT Kids After-School Program this year is participation in the First Lego League (FLL) where students design, build and program a robot out of Legos. One thing you have to love about Ana is her energy, and when I said this, her entire body responded with excitement. After Ana translated everything, her mother nodded and gave me her contact information. Ana and her brother were enrolled and within a few weeks, Ana was in the Robotics Club.

I have to pause to explain God’s provision in the creation of this Lego Robotics Club this year. I have marveled several times this year at all God has blessed us with in the program and was reminded of the passage in John, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13).

In the summer, I applied for the 2017 Oklahoma Science & Engineering Foundation – Dell grant and the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance grant with the plan to launch the First Lego League and First Lego League Jr. programs for our after-school students. We prayed over these grants, and God was so utterly good to bless us with both grants which

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enabled us to buy all the necessary kits and computers to participate in the FLL and FLL Jr. programs! At the same time, I was praying for more volunteers to facilitate the FLL program, and again, God brought us a wonderful college student, Braeden Williams, who took on the laborious job of leading the club. In addition, I received a random email from Kim and Alan Duncan who were moving back to Tulsa from the San Francisco Bay area and were interested in volunteering in our after-school program. I was elated to learn Kim was a 3rd grade teacher, and Alan was a physics and Senior Fellow at Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center. God was so good to not only bring people to help, but also to bring people with the training and experience needed to help run a quality robotics program!

So, back to Ana! After many, many, many weeks of the faithfulness of Braeden, Kim, Alan and the StreetLeaders, we reached the First Lego League competition for our team!!! I left my home at 7:20am to pick up everyone to head off to the competition at TU. I picked up Ana first; she was sitting on her porch waiting for me. Once she saw me she jumped up and ran to the car ….she was a few ticks above her typical energetic, happy self. As we drove to pick up the other team members Ana chatted away about how excited she

Crossover Community Impact

was to make it all the way to competition. I must have been responding in a lackluster manner because she stopped suddenly and said, “Look, you don’t understand, this is like a dream come true for me!” I thought that is quite a statement, even for Ana. So I said, “Yeah?” Ana resounded, “Yeah!!! I was in a Lego robotics club, but my parents had to pull me out of it because they could not keep taking time off work for it. They had to pick my brother and me up from school, then take me to the club, then take him to a sitter, then finally come back for me when Lego club was over. So, I never got to go to competition.”

Ana’s mom works at McDonald’s and her Dad works in construction, and it was jeopardizing her mom’s employment to leave work to run the kids around. At that moment, amidst my running around picking kids up, hoping to make it to TU in time to meet the others, I was overwhelmed by God’s provision again and couldn’t do anything other than stop to thank him out loud. All I could say to Ana at that moment was, “Wow, praise God!”

We are living proof God hears our prayers for the manpower, resources and love we need to serve our families in a way that is a blessing to them and brings glory to God!

Leah Pickard is the director of the IMPACT Kids and StreetLeader programs. She is an avid lover of people and gifted at building others up! She has been married to Justin Pickard for 16 years, and they have 4 adorable children. When she is not working, she enjoys spending with her family, camping, and a hot beverage by the fireplace😊.

If you would like to learn more about the IMPACT Kids program, please go to http:// crossoverimpact.org/impact-kids/.