Las Vegas may be the city of chance, but at Las Vegas Jr. Academy, educators don't take chances when it comes to students’ education. One thing they are very purposeful about is service. All through school, academic curriculum will be taught and re-taught, and while students should excel academically, learning to serve and bless others is of equal value.

Each year, LVJA finds a variety of ways to fulfill this purpose. This year, grades two and three collected teddy bears for disadvantaged children. The ninth and tenth graders joined them in collecting diapers and baby items for a needy mother with a young family. Grades five and six found a family who needed a nice Christmas, and the students carefully selected and bought gifts for each family member.

As a school, LVJA collected 550 pounds of canned food at Christmas time in the first annual food drive for the local community food bank. They also collected quarters for Christian Record Services to help send blind children to camp.

Grade three has a card ministry. Each year, students prepare hundreds of handmade cards to send to those who are ill, in prison, or serving in the military. In this, they have found a new purpose for practicing good handwriting skills. Students in other classes routinely make cards to brighten the day of those around them or for sick class members or teachers. Various classes take time on a regular basis to form prayer lists, thus learning to bless others by their prayers, even when they cannot help physically.

The music classes are another avenue for teaching service. The bell choirs and various student choirs have monthly performances at area churches, blessing members with their music and sometimes helping to conduct the church services. Parents who are not church-goers become involved, and one student and his parents were baptized as a result of attending church with the junior high choir. Children sing, repeat memory verses, and make seasonal cards for the local senior luncheon and occasionally bring cheer to the nearby convalescent hospital residents with their music and cards.

Students in grades five through 10 have a mentoring program. Many of them have found a use for their academic skills as they help students in lower grade classrooms. They read with the younger students, help them with art projects, assist the teacher, or just sit with students who need a special friend. Once in awhile, they even get a chance to try classroom teaching.

Service is not a thing of chance, and LVJA wants its students to remember their true purpose of life—to bless others.