Our STORY, Our WHY

Back in the summer of 2016, Levi Lusko, the author of the book Through the Eyes of a Lion, spoke at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. It became my absolute favorite book and sharing it with everybody became something I had always felt called to do. In the fall of 2018, this book was given out to a number of students, staff, and members of the Pleasant Grove community with the money earned from working part-time in a restaurant. In addition, the book giving expanded to people all over the country to share the author’s message as well as to create a network for this 501c3 nonprofit organization.

As the book was given out in the Pleasant Grove community, 7 students came together to create a family in room 332 at H. Grady Spruce High School. Every single morning, we checked in, talked about the book, and engaged in conversations to discuss how we could make the community better. In January 2019, we created the club called Anchored By Family. Every single Wednesday after school we met to craft and brainstorm more ideas to improve the Pleasant Grove community.

The first idea was to create a buddy/mentorship program between Spruce High School students and Dorsey Elementary School students. This is about to be consistently implemented in the next few months between the two schools in the community, facilitated by H. Grady Spruce graduates of 2019. This past spring, we began by volunteering at a father daughter dance for Valentine’s Day hosted at Dorsey Elementary. Our role was to help with check-in, help out by pointing the father and daughters in the right direction of the gym, as well as to pass out food and drinks at the concessions table.

After this event, we continued to meet to discuss further how we could impact the community in a greater way. To kick things off, we filled over 200 eggs with candy and good luck notes inside for the Dorsey Elementary students taking STAAR testing. Dorsey Elementary hosted a pep rally to get the students excited about STAAR testing. The seven Spruce students, along with the Spruce drill team, handed out the eggs to all the kids as they exited the auditorium and the counselor of Dorsey Elementary introduced us as “Anchored By Family”.

Next, a poster was created for a dear friend’s family member who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Tons of students at Spruce came together to write encouraging notes on cards that went on the top of the poster. At one of our club meetings, following the pep rally, the 7 students from Spruce came together to put hand prints in different colors on the poster to give to my friend’s family.

Following, the 8 of us knew that we were being called to something BIGGER and GREATER in the community. We started to dream about building a community center in Pleasant Grove, which will provide resources that are not currently available to those in the community right now. We are just getting started and cannot wait to see what 2020 holds for this organization and to see some seeds we planted come to bear fruit and come to life. Running toward the ROAR today, tomorrow, always and forever!!! #RTTR

With love,

            Your Anchored By Family squad and crew

Kayla, Cedric, Crystal, Jonathan, Angel, Hazel, Kelson, and Ms. Hewes