At Mayfield Junior School in Pasadena, a current Reach-Out program has once again shown that actions often speak louder than words.

Led by Mayfield parent Terri Miller and Linda LaBruna, the Reach-Out program invited parents, teachers, students and the community to make clothing and food donations to benefit Loaves and Fishes, a program of Catholic Charities. As a result, two truckloads of donations were recently collected and distributed in Glendale and the North Los Angeles area.

"When our kids come together to reach out to someone in need, they become more compassionate people and more open to the world outside of school," said Mayfield parent PJ Kaminski.

In conjunction with the Reach-Out programs, each class at Mayfield chose a project or charity to support: the elderly, the needy, the homeless, the disabled or the environment.

Kicking off the Lenten season, the school started the Lenten Coin Drive, with proceeds to benefit the South Central LAMP, an organization that provides non-violence parenting classes, ESL and pre-school classes to residents of South Los Angeles free of charge.

In addition, students began a Paper Chain of Kindness. Every day, children write an act of kindness that they performed on a piece of paper; these links will be connected to see how far around the school the chain will go.