My CARing Oath
I am a CARing Kid.
I am a beloved child of God,
a unique and wonderful creation.

I know that when I care about myself and others,
I can achieve greath things.
I respect myself, other people, and their property.
I am trustworthy and I strive to live with integrity.
I say no to things that harm me like drugs and gangs, and yes to things that fill my life with goodness like education and other CARing people.

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Who? What is CARing Kids?
The CARing Kids program is a portion of the CARing Project. The Friday CARing Kid program seeks to build self-esteem and provide role models to the elementary school children of Langley Park. This program pairs each child one-on-one with a university student. The program also works on developing the children's language, reading, math, and social abilities.

The children come from a multi-cultural community. Unfortunately, the neighborhood is marked by high unemployment, language barriers, drugs, and poverty. Their are anywhere from 20-24 children in the program during a given semester. The children are in fourth through sixth grades at Langley Park- McCormick Elementary School, and are choosen by their principal to be part of the program.

The program is staffed by the director/chaplain Pastor Elizabeth Platz, a student intern, and university student volunteers. The CARing Project is totally funded by donations both of funds and materials by individuals, campus groups, and church groups. The vans that transport the children to and from the program are partialy funded by Student Government Association funds given to the Lutheran Student Association.

A Day at CARing
A day at CARing on the surface may seem to be pure chaos. There are a lot of elements to the project that keep those attending the programing hustling and bustling around Hope Lutheran Church where the program is held. On a typical Friday, the children arrive after school and play outside with their buddies. Around 3:00pm the children gather inside the church for snack. After snack the children are broken up into four groups.

One group is called the Know It Alls. The Know it alls activity for the afternoon typically involves reading and writing, such as book reports, plays, designing their own cities, story writing and telling, etc. A second group is called the Creators. The creators engage in an arts and crafts project. These projects are often centered around cultures or educational concepts. A third group is called the Explorers. The explorers take a local educational field trip. Some field trips in the past have included the Patuxent Wild Life Center, Goddard Space Center, and University Locations such as Cole Field House or the Campus Recreation Center. The fourth group is called the Kitchen crew. This crew follows a recipe to prepare and serve the end-of-the-day snack.

In addition to these groups there are also several overall programs that take place, such as a reading program called the Reading Dragon. At the CARing project school store, the children can shop with points they receive for completing group projects and educational worksheets.

Also, several times throughout the program, there are non-typical Fridays, where a special occasion party, field trip, or event may be scheduled for the children.

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