2008 Annual Report - Albany, NY: Law Firm, Litigation, Commercial ...

Share our time, our talents,
and our energy
Many institutions have mission statements and mottos that reside in dusty archives. Not so with
the Robert C. Parker School, whose motto reads:
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In caring for others, our community, and ourselves, we:
Reach out to others with kindness
Speak and act with respect
Strive for understanding of difference
Share our time, our talents, and our energy
This motto lives vibrantly through every child at Parker School, where each class gets involved in
annual service projects. Shelly Failing’s 6th grade class decided to spearhead a school-wide food and
clothing drive in the fall of 2008. As they geared up with posters, flyers and classroom visits designed
Street Ministry
Program Highlights
Street Ministry provides food,
clothing, job coaching, and
other necessities to those in need
in our community. In 2008,
Unity House:
• Supplied 6,093 three-day
food supplies to families.
• Provided 990 families with
holiday food baskets.
• Sent 1,502 families to work
and school wearing free
clothing and household items
from the Unity House’s
Unique Boutique Thrift
Store.
to encourage donations, the students also considered which
charity they wanted to support with their “time, talent, and
energy.” As a group, they determined that “local” and “nondenominational”
were important features to them, and
Unity House was chosen to be the beneficiary.
Donations began to pour in: mountains of clean, warm
clothing just in time to ward of winter, and all kinds of nonperishable
food. The students were most impressed when
five cartons of “Whoppers,” a popular candy, were donated.
When the drive ended, the work for the sixth-grade class
was only half over. Transporting the donations to Unity
House was a project in itself, involving three trips to Unity
House, two of them with Shelly’s piled-high pick-up truck.
The students also made the trip into Troy to take a tour of
Unity House’s food pantry and thrift store to better
understand the needs of children and families less
fortunate. These students, who among them plan careers as
doctors, designers, and artists, will certainly take this experience with them as they grow into fully
engaged members of their communities.
Many thanks to Ms. Failing’s 6th grade class: Jonah Bremenkamp, Kiki Cunningham, Zara Davis, Jakub
Failing, Will MacClarence, and Joel Olzak.
ANNUAL REPORT 2008 3