LAS VEGAS – Community care starts with self-care. Mountain View Lutheran School students will work to help their neighbors better care for themselves by collecting hygiene items for Olive Crest, a nonprofit group dedicated to preventing child abuse and strengthening families.
From March 15 to May 12, Mountain View Lutheran will collect donations of hygiene products including full-size bottles of shampoo and conditioner and body wash along with deodorant, shaving cream, razors, hairbrushes, combs, toothpaste, and toothbrushes to give to Olive Crest.
The students will also donate the money raised in the weekly chapel to the nonprofit.
The general public can join the drive by dropping off new, unused packages of hygiene products in bins at the school, 9550 W. Cheyenne Ave.
The school’s hygiene products drive runs through April’s observance of Child Abuse Prevention Month. This year, the Children’s Bureau’s theme for National Child Abuse Prevention Month is “Thriving Children and Families: Prevention With Purpose.” The Children’s Bureau’s Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, the Child Welfare Information Gateway, and the Friends National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention developed the theme.
“It’s amazing what a big difference to one’s confidence a simple hygiene item can provide – let’s all do what we can to provide the amazing this world needs!” said Mountain View Lutheran School Principal Kris Schneider. “We pray our efforts to serve the community we love demonstrate God’s love for all of us.”
Mountain View Lutheran School features a strong traditional mix of mind-broadening lessons and intimate, in-person instruction. It is Nevada’s first and so far only elementary school with National Lutheran Schools Accreditation. It’s also the first Nevada school to earn the Western Association of Schools & Colleges and National Lutheran Schools Accreditation.
In November, the school held a Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt Food Drive to benefit families served by Lutheran Social Services of Nevada, another nonprofit agency.
Olive Crest offers a family resource center, foster care program, and other critical need programs to support the community. Since 2011, Olive Crest’s Operation Independence program has served youths ages 17 to 21 who are transitioning out of foster care.
Olive Crest’s signature programs, Operation Independence and Safe Families have yielded more than 7,000 safe nights for vulnerable children in Southern Nevada.
Mountain View Lutheran’s elementary school features co-curricular including instruction in the visual and performing arts and computer/library for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, and sign language instruction for third to fifth-grade students.
Core-subject teaching lets students learn widely and advance quickly. In math, for example, fifth-graders can enter accelerated learning in the second semester and regularly qualify for prealgebra for the sixth grade. Social studies lessons start local and widen. Fourth-graders study Nevada history; fifth-graders focus on American history.
Mountain View Lutheran School also offers a full-time preschool for children ages 2 to 5. It has openings for children starting at age 2, as well as full-day and half-day preschool for 3-year-old and up. For enrollment information or to view a virtual tour or schedule an in-person tour, please visit mvlcs.org/school or mvlcs.org/preschool for information.
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Since 1973, Olive Crest has transformed the lives of more than 100,000 abused, neglected, and at-risk children and their families by providing safe homes, counseling, and education for both youth and parents in Nevada, California, and the Pacific Northwest. Olive Crest in Nevada serves nearly 3,500 children and families annually. The Olive Crest family maintains a lifelong commitment to the youth and families it serves, even after those children have graduated from the Olive Crest programs.