Service
Our Family loves to do service for other people. It's funny because we love it just as much as dancing on the week ends together at the country clubs we go to. Some of our most memorable service projects we have done are:
1 Brett, I and the kids all love going to the food bank together. We've gone three times and every time that we do the kids beg to go back. Infact the last time we went the kids asked if we could just get on their calendar one day a month. Brett and the Boys stock shelves and work in the freezers. We help customers check out their free groceries and clean the food bank as a family before we leave.
2) At Christmas time the last three years we have done a sub for santa for a couple different families. Brett and I came up with this idea to teach our children the true meaning of Christmas. We told them that we would like to buy Christmas for a couple families that had no money, but that we didn't have enough money to buy Christmas for the poor and for our family. Without hesitation my children said, we want to spend the money you would buy us Christmas, for these other families. The first year we found a mentally retarded husband and wife that had two children. Also a woman who had 3 children. We took our four oldest children to Wal mart and gave each of them 100 dollars for each of the family members that we were buying Christmas for.. All the children in each of the families were the same ages as Brett and my four oldest children. Our kids had so much fun that Christmas. We were in Wal Mart for 5 hours and filled up 7 baskets with toys and food and personal heigene products all picked out by our children. That was just the beginning of the fun. Then we went through the self check out and purchased all the treasures we were going to give away. We took the gifts all home and wrapped a couple thousand dollars worth of goodies for these two families and delivered them to the poor. My kids were sad and shocked to see what this world is like. The first family lived in a run down little trailer and they had a charlie brown Christmas tree on their table. The second family did not have a Christmas tree. We bought them computers, TV's, and practically everything a little kid could dream of. The next two years we decided to only do the mentally retarded family. We sadly realized the woman with the three children was on meth and most likely returned all of her children's gifts for drug money. That was a very sad realization for my kids. But we proceeded to spoil the other family for the next two years. Each year that we have done sub for Santa's our children only get one gift from Santa and gifts from each other. Much smaller Christmases then they were use to. But they love it!!!
3) We go to old folk homes and visit and do service for them. While we were visiting one little old lady, she had just bought a new lap top and had no idea how to use it or the internet. My oldest son scheduled to have me take him over there once a week to tutor her- for free of course.
4) Each week one or all of us take the sacrament to the old folks home to the members of our congregation that can't get to the church service. This is something my oldest son has offered to do. He does not miss a week.
5) The past couple years at Thanksgiving we have taken balloons to all of the children on the pediatric floor to brighten their holiday.
6) I am starting a new project with my teenage girls sewing blankets and sleepers for the needy in other countries.
7) Brett looks for service opportunities at every needed moment to do with his children. In the middle of the summer Brett and his boys took care of a yard for a man with cancer who has a wife and a couple children at home. It is not unusual for Brett to drop what he's doing and run and help others that he hears may need his help. That particular day the girls and I stayed home and made them cookies.
8) Last weekend our church had a church wide garage sale. We offered to have all the items dropped off at our house. We spent from 6p-10p the night before sorting through items with our family and other church members. We had other peoples junk, that would soon be someone else's treasures, all over our house. The following morning at 6am we were up early to get all the items out into the yard. We raised a thousand dollars that we donated to the salvation army. The following year we did the same thing and donated 1,500 to Aware Central Texas.
9) Volunteered as a youth basketball and football coach
Brett became an Eagle Scout when he was 17 years old.
He was in the book Who's Who Among American High School Students for his involvement in multiple service clubs while attending C.E.Ellison High School in Killeen,TX.
100% attendance in a four year, early morning, bible study course while in high school
At 19 years old he served a two year mission for our church in Macon, Georgia.
In 1996 he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science from Brigham Young University;
Brett served as president of the BYU Pre-Law Association.
In 1998 he received a Juris Doctorate Degree from Texas Tech University; he was selected to the Texas Tech School of Law Legal Research Board and served as Writer having been selected on the basis of excellence in research and writing.
In 1999 he was licensed as an attorney in Texas.
He has been the regional President of his church's Youth Program for over seven years
(originally published on Nov. 22, 2011)
1 Brett, I and the kids all love going to the food bank together. We've gone three times and every time that we do the kids beg to go back. Infact the last time we went the kids asked if we could just get on their calendar one day a month. Brett and the Boys stock shelves and work in the freezers. We help customers check out their free groceries and clean the food bank as a family before we leave.
2) At Christmas time the last three years we have done a sub for santa for a couple different families. Brett and I came up with this idea to teach our children the true meaning of Christmas. We told them that we would like to buy Christmas for a couple families that had no money, but that we didn't have enough money to buy Christmas for the poor and for our family. Without hesitation my children said, we want to spend the money you would buy us Christmas, for these other families. The first year we found a mentally retarded husband and wife that had two children. Also a woman who had 3 children. We took our four oldest children to Wal mart and gave each of them 100 dollars for each of the family members that we were buying Christmas for.. All the children in each of the families were the same ages as Brett and my four oldest children. Our kids had so much fun that Christmas. We were in Wal Mart for 5 hours and filled up 7 baskets with toys and food and personal heigene products all picked out by our children. That was just the beginning of the fun. Then we went through the self check out and purchased all the treasures we were going to give away. We took the gifts all home and wrapped a couple thousand dollars worth of goodies for these two families and delivered them to the poor. My kids were sad and shocked to see what this world is like. The first family lived in a run down little trailer and they had a charlie brown Christmas tree on their table. The second family did not have a Christmas tree. We bought them computers, TV's, and practically everything a little kid could dream of. The next two years we decided to only do the mentally retarded family. We sadly realized the woman with the three children was on meth and most likely returned all of her children's gifts for drug money. That was a very sad realization for my kids. But we proceeded to spoil the other family for the next two years. Each year that we have done sub for Santa's our children only get one gift from Santa and gifts from each other. Much smaller Christmases then they were use to. But they love it!!!
3) We go to old folk homes and visit and do service for them. While we were visiting one little old lady, she had just bought a new lap top and had no idea how to use it or the internet. My oldest son scheduled to have me take him over there once a week to tutor her- for free of course.
4) Each week one or all of us take the sacrament to the old folks home to the members of our congregation that can't get to the church service. This is something my oldest son has offered to do. He does not miss a week.
5) The past couple years at Thanksgiving we have taken balloons to all of the children on the pediatric floor to brighten their holiday.
6) I am starting a new project with my teenage girls sewing blankets and sleepers for the needy in other countries.
7) Brett looks for service opportunities at every needed moment to do with his children. In the middle of the summer Brett and his boys took care of a yard for a man with cancer who has a wife and a couple children at home. It is not unusual for Brett to drop what he's doing and run and help others that he hears may need his help. That particular day the girls and I stayed home and made them cookies.
8) Last weekend our church had a church wide garage sale. We offered to have all the items dropped off at our house. We spent from 6p-10p the night before sorting through items with our family and other church members. We had other peoples junk, that would soon be someone else's treasures, all over our house. The following morning at 6am we were up early to get all the items out into the yard. We raised a thousand dollars that we donated to the salvation army. The following year we did the same thing and donated 1,500 to Aware Central Texas.
9) Volunteered as a youth basketball and football coach
Brett became an Eagle Scout when he was 17 years old.
He was in the book Who's Who Among American High School Students for his involvement in multiple service clubs while attending C.E.Ellison High School in Killeen,TX.
100% attendance in a four year, early morning, bible study course while in high school
At 19 years old he served a two year mission for our church in Macon, Georgia.
In 1996 he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science from Brigham Young University;
Brett served as president of the BYU Pre-Law Association.
In 1998 he received a Juris Doctorate Degree from Texas Tech University; he was selected to the Texas Tech School of Law Legal Research Board and served as Writer having been selected on the basis of excellence in research and writing.
In 1999 he was licensed as an attorney in Texas.
He has been the regional President of his church's Youth Program for over seven years
(originally published on Nov. 22, 2011)
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