Students in Stone Middle School’s National Junior Honor Society will participate in a Help the Homeless Walk, next Thursday, Oct. 24, to raise money for Western Fairfax Christian Ministries (WFCM). It will be right after school and will go through the surrounding neighborhoods. Students will carry signs highlighting homelessness and hunger statistics to raise awareness of this problem in our community.
“The students will learn that this isn’t an issue in some far-away city,” said WFCM Community Outreach Manager Jennie Bush. “It’s something that possibly their own neighbors might be dealing with. It’s hard to believe that, in wealthy Fairfax County, around 70,000 children and adults do not know where their next meal will come from. So WFCM is there to help with life-essential needs such as food, clothing and emergency financial aid to help families in crises.”
The NJHS members have enthusiastically supported this Help the Homeless Walk for many years, with some 140 students usually taking part. And this time, besides raising funds to assist WFCM, the students will bring in nonperishable food items to help restock the shelves in WFCM’s food pantry. Stone’s NJHS club sponsor is Catherine Burke.
Hopefully, said Bush, when others in the community learn of the students’ efforts, “It will make them think, ‘I can do that, too.’”