On April 12, Mount Paran Christian School (MPCS) lower school students in grades four and five took to the stage in Disney’s Finding Nemo Kids to entertain a very
special audience of peers, parents, grandparents, and friends from the Ben Carson Reading Club at Walton Village Adventure Center.
The Ben Carson Reading Club is an after-school enrichment program located within the Walton Adventure Center that provides a nurturing space and reading resources to combat illiteracy and promote leisure reading to unlock the potential of young children. Walton Adventure Center’s after-school program provides learning support and activities for the youngest residents of select Walton apartment communities.
MPCS students work with Walton Adventure Center through several different ministry events during the school year including Family Serve Day and Serve Saturday where families and students serve together; visits from the football team where players host games and activities with students at the Adventure Center; the Legacy dance where baseball and football players attend and dance with senior citizens; and multiple other service opportunities where students earn service hours working with others within the community.
Servant-leaders at MPCS learn from a young age that gifts and talents are a blessing to be shared with others, and the cast and crew of Finding Nemo Kids were excited to share tickets to the show as well as their God-given talents with their new friends from the Ben Carson Reading Club. After the show, the children from Walton Village Adventure Center went to a local restaurant to splurge on yummy treats. One of the children saw a bystander without food and handed his unwrapped food to the man, wanting to share something that he had with someone else, as someone had done with him.
Both the children at MPCS and the children at Walton Adventure Center found that like Nemo, who finds solace and assistance in his friends during turbulent times, we too find support and encouragement from our Christian community as we navigate life’s trials together.
