Linden students help build houses in Guatemala
Published 10:59 am Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Shown from left to right on the front row are LHS Beta Club President Felesia Dukes, missionary to Guatemala Grace Ludeman and LHS Student Council President Alexis Johnson; left to right on the second row, Kathelin Bishop, Chelsea Fritts, Adriauna Alston and Lynneshia Dukes; left to right on the third row, Oriana Little, Jamya Thompson, Amanda Evans, Tierra Jacobs and Diamond Miller; and left to right on the fourth row, Cadarius Hinton, Aiyana McCaskey, Danielle Palmer, Kyasia Chaney and Larry Lewis. Not pictured are Brandon Bates, D.J. Charleston, Lyric Jones, Kristi Jones, Challis Compton and Kristian Drake.
The Linden High School Beta Club and Student Council work together during the spring semester of each year to raise money for a mutually chosen charity as a part of the community service mission of both organizations.
This year’s charity was unanimously selected early in the fall semester when the presidents of both groups — Felesia Dukes, LHS Beta Club president and member of the LHS Student Council, and Alexis Johnson, LHS Student Council president and member of the LHS Beta Club — learned that the cost of building a house for a family in Guatemala is $300.
The members of the organizations that Dukes and Johnson lead got on board, hoping that with their annual Valentine’s Basket Raffle, the two clubs could raise enough money to sponsor the building of two houses in Guatemala.
In an effort to make sure their goal would be met, the students wrote letters to local churches inviting them to be a part of giving to the Guatemalan home-building mission project.
After all the $1 contributions to the basket raffle were collected and counted and the local church donations to the mission cause were added, the LHS far exceeded their original goal of building two houses. The total amount raised for the Guatemalan house-building mission was $1,750.
Members of the LHS Beta Club and the LHS Student Council wanted to thank the members of Calvary Baptist Church, Lewis Chapel, Linden Baptist Church, New Life Outreach Ministries, Pine Grove Baptist Church, St. Peter Baptist Church, Tabernacle Baptist Church and Thomaston Baptist Church, as well as the Vincent McCaskey family for their generous spirit of giving to the Guatemalan mission effort through the LHS student-led community service outreach project.
The funds were accepted by Grace Ludeman, a Marengo County summer missionary to Guatemala, on behalf of Marengo County native Johnny Tucker and the International Missions Association he leads and ministers through.
