Oceanside Adventist Elementary School in Oceanside, Calif., started as a small school of 19 students about 10 years ago. Today there are 95 students, five full-time teachers, and a full-time principal.

The school is committed to providing quality Christian education at an affordable price and helping students learn how they can serve Jesus on a daily basis.

In an effort to help the students learn to care for others, the school created two special awards. One is called the “Spirit Trophy” and the other is called the “Good Samaritan Award.”

The “Spirit Trophy” is handed out at chapel to those classrooms that fulfill the community caring project each month. Each month the staff picks a different project for the students to work on. Every class has the opportunity to earn the trophy, which stays in their classroom for one week.

Projects include canned food drives, collecting toys for Christmas baskets, writing letters to the military, collecting socks to send on a mission trip to Mexico, collecting money for the tsunami victims, making cards for the elderly, and sponsoring a project to translate the Bible into the contemporary Russian language.

There is healthy competition between the classes to be the first classroom to have the trophy each month.

The “Good Samaritan Award” is a special honor that is only given when children are nominated and presented during Friday chapel. Children receive this award for gestures such as helping those who are hurt, cleaning up messes that they didn’t make, assisting teachers without being asked, showing kindness to their classmates, being a good sport in a bad situation, and volunteering to help with a cheerful heart.