Lisa Dykes is a well known face on the Holy Trinity campus. Most known for her extravagant outfits, loud energy, and remarkable teaching skills, Dykes does just as much in school as she does out of school for our community and beyond. More specifically, Dykes supports St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Jack Academy and every year sees benefits throughout those communities.

Dykes likes to mainly focus on different communities or charities that support children’s welfare. After becoming a mom in her twenties, she realized how much effort and care children need and that made her want to help more kids who may not have the same kinds of advantages. “I wasn’t as inspired to help children’s welfare based charities until I became a mom,” Dykes said. 

The first charity Dykes started supporting was St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. This specific charity focuses on children who have cancer or debilitating diseases and prioritizes giving them free care. Another benefit from St. Jude is that the parents of these sick children get the opportunity to stay in the hospitals or somewhere near their children during these tough times. Dykes emphasizes that St. Jude is especially good at sending out updates about how the children are doing and how they have been affected by the specific cancer treatments which makes it much more of a personal feeling.

“St. Jude is something I don’t have a lot of connection to as far as a personal connection, but then getting involved with Jack Academy as well allowed me to be involved on a more personal level with people that I actually know,” Dykes said. 

More recently, Dykes started supporting a more familiar association, Jack Academy. Jack Academy is a school in Ghana that one of our former students, Jayden Ruddock and his family sponsor. “I love supporting Jack Academy because I just know that when I get updates from the kids in Ghana, being able to see their smiles, and just knowing they have a chance to learn and go to a school means the world to me” Dykes said. 

Dykes recounts that the most rewarding feeling about supporting these charities is just knowing that some of those kids might have survived because you might’ve spent a little money helping out. Making sure the charities she supports focus on the health and education of kids is a big deal to Dykes.

After starting to support these different charities, Dykes became the sponsor of the Holy Trinity Hero Club. The Hero Club’s main mission is to raise money throughout the year for relief efforts. Every year the club picks a couple of places or charities around the world that might need their help. “We’ve been able to raise money for places like Thailand and Ghana so that kids can have classroom supplies or uniforms,” Dykes said. 

“Even though I might be busy teaching all day, I know that some things are worth my extra time,” Dykes said.

Balancing both teaching and supporting different causes is a big task but Dykes finds a way to keep it even by supporting causes that do different things for the same cause. Over the years, Dykes has learned life lessons from supporting various charities such as: a little bit makes a big difference-whether it’s a dollar or it’s a minute of your time, and there’s nothing more rewarding than knowing something you did made a difference. Dykes shares that the best way to get involved is to find something you’re passionate about and find a way to support it.

“Finding something you love and whatever that passion is, pour your heart into it,” Dykes said.