El Montecito has responded to the call to “love locally” by embracing Cleveland Elementary School. In the summer of 2022, our Outreach Ministry Team contributed funds that enabled six boys and girls from Cleveland to attend a local summer sports camp. Earlier in the year, our OMT helped the school purchase physical activity equipment for students in lower grades to use during lunch and other outdoor play periods.
During COVID restrictions, our outreach team purchased voice amplifiers for classroom teachers and headsets for students to use with district-provided iPads. Donations from El Montecito also purchased portable camp chairs students used for learning outdoors.
In 2021, our congregation’s Easter Offering raised more than $6,000 for Cleveland. The funds purchased furnishings and equipment that laid the groundwork for the school’s STEAM lab (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, Math), or “makerspace” in modern parlance.
Cleveland School Principal Gabe Sandoval regularly engages El Montecito and other local supporters by reaching out for volunteer help. For promotion ceremonies wrapping up the 2021-22 school year, several Outreach Ministry Team members jumped in to help dress up the ceremony by framing the outdoor stage with dozens of live potted plants loaned by a local nursery.
At the start of the 2022-23 school year, volunteers brought their smiling faces to guide new students arriving for their first day of school to their classroom.
The Outreach team continues to pursue creative ways to encourage Cleveland’s students, families, and teachers in response to God’s call to help others. We partner with other local churches, along with the Eucalyptus Hill Improvement Association and several service organizations, including the Kiwanis Club of Santa Barbara.
