Praise Academy at Lakeside

Give for Good, our yearly online giving event, has started!

Our goal is to raise $50,000 by midnight, when the donation window closes.

All the money raised during Give for Good will help us continue to provide a strong education in a safe, Christian environment to Shreveport children.

To support the work of educating more children, click the link below.

https://www.giveforgoodnla.org/organization/praiseacademy

We Made Headlines

We’re thrilled to share that The Catholic Connection magazine in Shreveport recently published a feature article about Praise Academy. The piece beautifully highlights our mission and the work we’re doing to educate the children in the Allendale-Lakeside neighborhood. It’s an honor to see our story recognized and shared with a wider audience.

We’re grateful for the opportunity, and I invite you to read the article. https://issuu.com/catholicconnection/docs/march_2026_-_service_and_sacrafice

THE HARVEST:

We aren’t farmers, but we’ve still seen “fields white for the harvest.” (Jn 4:35). This Thanksgiving, here was the harvest we were thankful for:

At Praise Academy, children are free to be children.

The teachers report that Praise Academy kindergarteners arrive at school, eat breakfast quickly, and race outside, bug nets in hand. When they aren’t presenting the spoils of the hunt to their teachers, they are speeding up and down the sidewalks on strider bikes or giving each other wagon rides. Meanwhile, the older students will be playing soccer, or football, or making up one new game after another until the bell rings for class.

At Praise Academy, children are learning.

This semester, English teacher David Sullivan’s class of fifth graders moved from an average score of 50% on their spelling tests to an average score of 99%. One girl explained, “I learned that I really like getting 100% on my spelling test…so I work hard at it.” One kindergartener who couldn’t read numbers at the beginning of the year worked with a teacher day after day until he could. One girl learned the life cycle of a butterfly this fall and now spends recess playing “Metamorphosis.” Two seventh-grade boys, when given the choice, regularly choose the harder math homework because they know they need the practice.

At Praise Academy, children are seeking God.

This fall, the middle school girls started choosing the Bible as a free-choice Reading Workshop book. The kindergarteners regularly ask their teacher for one more Bible story. One middle school boy observed, with the agreement of his classmates, “When I’m at school, it’s easier to be a Christian.”

For all this growth: thanks be to God!

My Brother, My Friend.

For the past three years, Praise Academy teacher David Sullivan has driven a used but faithful fifteen-passenger van around the neighborhood with another teacher to pick up some of the students. The van would often pass by the same man, sitting in his driveway on an old metal chair, waving at the cars that went by. “He was there some mornings, but almost every afternoon,” recalls David. “So we would wave back.” After some weeks of waving, the students started calling their roadside acquaintance “Mr. David’s friend.” “It became this thing,” says David, “The kids would all yell out, ‘Wave to Mr. David’s friend!’ and we’d all wave. Eventually, his wave to us got more enthusiastic.”

This summer, thanks to a miracle (but that’s another story), Praise Academy got a new fifteen-passenger van. “The kids talk about it like it’s an airplane,” David only half-joked. “They’re thrilled about it.” The evening before the first day of school, David was practicing the bus route with the new van. When he drove by “his friend’s” house, the man (who didn’t recognize the car) didn’t give David his usual enthusiastic wave. David stopped the car in front of his house and got out.

The man looked at him with suspicion. “You don’t know me, and I don’t know you,” started David. “But we kind of know each other.” The man raised his eyebrows. “I drive a van for a school, and we drive by here every day. We just got this new white van, but our old van was a big silver one.” The man jumped off his chair, ran to David, and started shaking his hand. “My name’s Warren!” he almost shouted with excitement. “Tell those kids I said hi, I really appreciate waving to them every day!”

Warren had David sit down with him, and they talked for a while. Warren told David, “I live alone, and I don’t really like being in the house, so I just sit here, wave to people, and pray. That’s what I do with most of my day. I been praying for you guys, for all those kids, for a long time. Kids in the city have a hard life. Some people don’t have anyone praying for them. I pray for them. I pray for you because you're driving them…You gotta treat people well because Christ is in them. You gotta be good to those kids because God has entrusted you with His Son in these kids. That’s a big deal.”

As David said goodbye, he said, “It’s good to have a name with the wave. Now we’ll call you ‘Mr. Warren’ instead of ‘Mr. David’s friend.’” Warren exclaimed, “Friend? After the conversation we just had? Man, you’re my brother!” He pulled David into a bear hug. “Tell those kids that we’re brothers!”

Now, when the Praise Academy van passes Warren’s house, the kids all shout, “There goes Mr. David’s brother!” And he still waves.

Please consider giving to Give for Good, northwest Louisiana's largest giving day. Help more children attend Praise Academy. To give, simply click here https://www.giveforgoodnla.org/organization/praiseacademy

A Place to Gather and a Place to Learn And a place, full of hope!

We Did It!

Thank you for your very generous support of the school during the Give for Good campaign. We not only met our goal of $150,000 but exceeded it, raising $164,680. Praise Academy came in #2 in total giving out of 241 organizations!

It is because of all of you that the building next door to the school is now ours and we are able to continuing providing tuition assistance and a quality education for our families.

Thank you for your prayers, financial support, and the many volunteer hours. We could not do this without you!

Give for Good is Praise Academy's largest fundraiser event of the year and it's today!

Help us educate the children in the Allendale/Lakeside Neighborhood, which is the poorest zipcode in Louisiana. Any gift helps and every gift is appreciated.

Click this link to help us educate more children. https://www.giveforgoodnla.org/praiseacademy

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela