Building Compassion in the Huddle

For most of us, a few dollars here or there don’t impact our lives much, but for others, the opposite is true. The Champlin Park High School FCA is doing their part to alleviate a bit of that stress for one family each Christmas. 2021 was the seventh year the huddle participated in the Adopt-a-Family program. Each year they bless at least one family of an athlete at the school with $500-$700 worth of gifts: some necessities and some wants as well. 

Huddle members start collecting money from their classmates right after Thanksgiving. At the same time, the student leaders gather the names of some student-athletes they believe have some financial need. Those names are given to huddle coaches Axness, Larson, and Davis who discuss the names and reach out to the athlete’s sports coach to determine the depth of need before narrowing it down to one athlete. 

The coach or huddle coach then confidentially approaches the athlete to see if he/she would like the family to participate. If they want to participate, they gather a Christmas list from each member of their family, and the student leaders go shopping with the money that has been raised. In addition to gifts purchased with money raised at school, Champlin Athletics also donates Rebels gear for the family.

Recipients are usually apprehensive at first but later so thankful for the generosity of the FCA huddle. The huddle has blessed basketball, football, and baseball players’ families as well as athletes from other sports. They are not required to be FCA athletes and in fact, usually aren’t.

However, one year the recipient was an FCA athlete, but even the student leaders didn’t know it when they were picking out gifts for her family. After Christmas, Addy asked to be the speaker at the FCA huddle. She shared that her family received that year’s gifts and how it had made their Christmas so special. It took courage for Addy to share, but it was a humbling experience for huddle members to hear how fellow classmates and teammates may be struggling without anyone else knowing.

Allison Axness is a physical education teacher, volleyball coach and huddle coach at Champlin Park. She is often blown away by the generosity of the students but also by the way God works in bringing the right student athlete who needs an extra blessing. She said, “It’s amazing how God is at work finding this family for us. Sometimes we wonder why a family said no, but we learn later that it’s because another family needed it more.” One year, the student’s mom had just found out she had cancer. One time, a student’s father was in jail. Still another student was working her own job to help the family. Each story is unique. Each need is different. But one thing is sure: the family is blessed by the generosity of the FCA huddle.

And the FCA huddle is also blessed as they are confronted with the fact that not all families have all they need and especially not all they want. It’s easy to take for granted when you don’t have to worry, but these huddle members learn so much from the experience. Sometimes the things that make the list for families are socks, hair ties, or gas cards. Many students would never ask for those things because they can just go to the store and pick them up anytime. It’s a huge impact when they see that for some families, the simple necessities are an incredible blessing.

Thank you to the Champlin Park FCA huddle for showing love to fellow classmates and modeling Christ’s love through the generosity offered to those walking down a difficult road. You will never know the impact of the decision to help a family, but it will definitely have lifelong effects. Minnesota FCA is grateful for your generosity and your desire to make a difference in someone else’s life.