“My name is Tyler Brooks, I am a Junior at Faith Christian Academy (FCA) and also a member of the National Honors Society (NHS). As part of my NHS community service project, I selected to work with Barnabas. One of the reasons I chose Barnabas for my project is because I know of several students families at FCA whom Barnabas has directly helped. I believe it is important to give back. Part of the requirements for the project is to show leadership, organizational, and communications skills. My mentor for the project was my father, Michael Brooks and my direct contact with Barnabas was Renee Stoffel, the Community Outreach Manager. For this project, we selected the Hispanic Family Fun Day that was held on Saturday, March 26th, and located at the Fernandina Beach Peck Center. Outside they had a small antique car show, corn hole, and the Journey Church was giving out food. Inside, eight other volunteers from FCA and I helped set up a Barnabas food bank table, a kids table, and a games and toys table.

The whole purpose of the event was to show the Hispanic Community what services and programs are available to them in Nassau County. At the tables we volunteered at we gave each family a bag of food that had all sorts of healthy products in it including items like whole grain pasta and canned veggies. Other items we passed out were balloons, stuffed animals, pencils and games for the kids, new toothbrushes and toothpaste, and for a light snack some delicious apples donated by the Journey Church.

There were also other organizations set up inside providing education and handing out information packets. It was fun and rewarding to help out and connect with others in our community. Overall, that day was a great experience and everyone had a great time volunteering. It was also nice to see the community come together to help others. I would like to thank Renee Stoffel for helping me with my project and look forward to volunteering again in the future.”