SW Covenant students, family, staff serve community, donate to charity

YUKON, Okla. (KFOR) - More than 1,000 people associated with Southwest Covenant Schools, a private school in Yukon, helped out their community Friday by working in a Yukon city park. Their work included everything from putting out Christmas lights to picking up trash and even a charitable donation.

It’s a day away from school for the students, but they’re still learning lessons through the work.

“That is the aspect of serving and helping and making a difference in their community,” school Head Master Steve Lessman said.

About 560 students joined family members and staff to do everything from removing rocks to de-weed flower beds, planting flowers, cutting branches and picking up trash. In several areas, they were also laying out Christmas lights for Yukon’s famous holiday display.

It’s called the Patriot Project and the school has been doing it for 19 years.

"It's a great opportunity every year to come out and serve the community that I've been growing up in over the years,” senior student Caleb Friend said.

Friend has been around for 14 of those years. But even the younger one’s are working into the tradition.

"Knowing that it helps our park, that people, when we're done, can come and see that and have a fun time here,” third grade student Kathryn Carnuccio said.

It’s also a school fundraiser with a percentage of proceeds going to City Center, a nonprofit resource for clothing, food and more for underserved and at risk youth and families. Friday, the school donated $25,000 to them.

"We get to serve a lot of meals with that. I'll just say that, it's an incredible donation,” CEO of City Center Jed Chappell said.

A few hours of work, going a long way for helping others. The students started Friday morning and finished up around 2:30 p.m.