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Now that the season of thankfulness and gratitude is upon us, our thoughts turn to all that we are thankful for. Family, friends, health and food are often high on everyone’s list. At the Beach Club at Ridgeway Balmoral Elementary in Memphis, Tenn., church coordinator Jason Almond decided to ask children what they were thankful for, but he was not prepared for some of their answers.

Almond and the rest of the volunteers were ready and excited for the Thanksgiving lesson at their Beach Club, sponsored by Ridgeway Baptist Church. Once they reached the point in the lesson where they began to ask what the children were thankful for, Almond said, “These kids surprised me, and brought all the leaders to a point of tears almost.”

Some of the kids shared that they were thankful for friends, parents, grandparents, teachers and other things you might expect a child to say. Almond remembers going through their responses and not really thinking too much about it.

That is, until the children started sharing how they were thankful for them, the volunteers.

Almond recalls one child saying, “We are thankful for you guys.” The children all then added on saying, “We can count on y’all to be here every week,” and “We look forward to this every week.”

The volunteers were caught off guard that the children would think of them and remember to list them as one of the things they are thankful for in Beach Club.

This attitude of love from the children to their Beach Club leaders continued all year. For another lesson, the children were prompted to share with everyone who they knew they could trust. One little boy raised his hand with such excitement and pleaded to be called on. Almond was expecting his answer to be his family, a firefighter or a police officer.

Instead the boy said, “We know that we can trust y’all. You’re here every week, you’re always there, we know that we can trust you.”

It was another touching surprise for the volunteers at Balmoral Ridgeway Elementary. “I didn’t realize the impact that we were having on these kids’ lives,” Almond said.

Volunteers, you are indeed impacting these kids’ lives for good. KiDs Beach Club® could not make Jesus cool at school without the time every volunteer invests in loving these kids and sharing Jesus with them. KiDs Beach Club® is so thankful for you!