Youth Education Support (YES) Center is an after-school tutoring and enrichment program for 6th grade students.
The YES Center operates four days per week during the school year. Tutors are talented and caring community volunteers who recognize the need for a safe environment where students can receive educational support and homework assistance. Two student groups attend twice weekly (either Monday, Wednesday or Tuesday, Thursday) for one-on-one guidance in mathematics and language arts.
Enrollment is by teacher referral or parent request. There is no cost to the parents for this community service.
The YES Center is located at 823 North Street on the northeast corner of the FPC campus and is led by Director Ann Reynolds. You may learn more about Ann by clicking here and contact her at (830) 896-1937 or yescenter@fpckerrville.org.
On our first mission trip to remote Guayabales, Guatemala, in January, 2020, just before the global pandemic stopped travel, we built a small building to house a solar-powered water purification system to produce enough clean water for the whole village. In January 2022 we were pleased to return to Guayabales.
Our project, also supported by the Noon Rotary Club of Kerrville, was to help Habitat for Humanity Guatemala and the villagers of Guayabales build a house for their school teachers to use during the rainy season. The road to Guayabales becomes impassable for a lot of that time during the rains. The two teachers come from larger towns and usually travel by motorcycle, but the road is so bad that sometimes they can only get to the village to hold school a couple days a week. With a house for their use in Guayabales, they can stay overnight when the weather makes the road dangerous, and ensure that school stays open every day.
Our team this year was Jane Ragsdale, Mitch Mitchell, Kristi Vandenberg, and Ross Newstead. We travelled with a larger team organized through Let Hope Begin Here, a small non-profit headed by Jane’s long time family friend, Dr. Scott Robertson. We helped to dig and lay the foundation, but one week doesn’t get a house built. These videos, sent from the villagers, show the final results, and they are wonderful!
Our AGM is an annual project of the Missions and Outreach Ministry of First Presbyterian Church and is held around Thanksgiving time. In the past years, the AGM has included fair trade items for sale that support artisans and farmers from all over the globe, as well as providing information about and the opportunity to donate to ministries providing disaster relief, clean water and solar power, micro loans, education, sustainable farming opportunities and medical care. Buying fair trade gifts or making donations in honor of family and friends provides an “alternative” to the traditional gifts and allows you to make a difference with meaningful gifts that keep on giving.
