2020-2021 School Theme:

Walking Together In Christ
Happy SUMMER!!! What a JOY it is to report to you that we have been OPEN and IN CLASS all year! May 21 was our last day of school, and we celebrated with a fun Field Day. On May 20, we held 2 graduation ceremonies.
Here is our Kindergarten Class of 2021.
That evening we graduated our TENTH class of 8th Graders! WOW! What
a blessing that night was for everyone! God is FAITHFUL!!!!
1st Class of 2012
Current Class of 2021
Many of these students came to us 11 years ago in our Pre-K3 class! They have now joined the other 141 Unity graduates and will move on to high school.
We have had 76 of these 141 finish high school already, and the remaining 65 are working hard in various high schools in the area.
We have had 100% of our Unity 8th graders graduate from High School, which is a statistic we are VERY proud of! GO, EAGLES! 
Many have gone on to college and trade schools and some have graduated and are into their careers. Others are serving in our US military. Unity has been making a difference in the lives of these students and families since 2003, and we thank YOU for your support to keep this momentum going!!! THANK YOU!!!
CLICK and ENJOY SOME GRAD VIDEOS!!!
Unity Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony…. May 20, 2021


Unity School 8th Grade Graduation Part 1
Procession in and speech by
Mr. Williams, 8th Grade Teacher

Unity School 8th Grade Graduation Part 2
Salutatorian and Valedictorian Speeches and Flower Presentation


Unity School 8th Grade Graduation Part 3
Speech by Ms. Jashira Bolden (Class of 2013) and Diplomas!


Unity School 8th Grade
"Year in Review" 5/20/21


Unity School 8th Grade …
”Baby to Graduate" 5-21-21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZhJRPEPGps
Thank you for
your Support!
The Zoom Call
was a lot of fun!
We've raised $193,790 towards our $250,000 Goal!!





We had a great time on the SITM ZOOM Call and if
you were ON the call,
thank you for your support!


If you missed it, you can watch the replay of it here:

You can read the SITM Letter by clicking here:

Click here to see the Share in the Miracle Video highlighting many of
our graduates and their stories!!

Click here to see the mission and ministry of Unity School!


Donations are always welcome.
You can donate online:


Or please make
checks out to
"Unity Lutheran School"
and mail them to
Chapel Speakers
We are so grateful for Rev. Dr. Steve Schave, Director of LCMS Urban Ministries, and Dr. Jay Krause, Principal of MELHS,
who came this month to speak in our chapel services.
Rev. Dr. Steve Schave
Dr. Jay Krause
In our Belong to Jesus Time, our students lead every Thursday.
Here is Mr. Williams' 8th Grade Class leading us one final time....
The 8th Grade Class led us in singing the Doxology by candle light.
May Activities!
Our 5th Graders made these neat Candy Jars as
Mother's Day Gifts for their mothers and grandmothers!!
We had AWARDS DAY and are so proud of every student for receiving one
or more awards!!! Our students ROCK!!
We had a very fun Field Day on the last day of school!!
Happy Birthday to these MAY, JUNE and JULY Birthday students!
They enjoyed their Birthday Bags, so thanks to all our donors! 
THREE CHEERS FOR OUR VOLUNTEERS!
We THANK Mr. Kevin Derezotes, a member of Rev. Doug Nicely’s Church at Jerusalem Lutheran in Collinsville, for coming to help our 8th graders make these wooden altars to use at home!!! They turned out great! He was the shop instructor at Mascoutah High School until he retired a couple of years ago. 
Thank you, Mr. Derezotes!!!
A big shoutout to these FUN ladies from St. Paul's in Columbia, IL!! Wanda Gross, Marilyn Snider, Nancy Stallard and Nancy Radentz and (next pic) Jackie Haberl for coming to organize the Unity Uniform Room!!! Also thanks to Jackie for donating the metal shelving rack and to Luci Washburn who donated 10 tubs for us to store the pants! (And thanks to LOWES for giving us 50% off the tubs!!) Teamwork 👍makes the Dream ❤work!!
Organized Uniform Room
Donors make the DIFFERENCE!!!
We are so grateful to the donor who gave money for the 8th Grade Graduation Gifts
of picture frames and mini photo books. Thank you! And I am very thankful for
these volunteers who helped assemble them for us! Thank you, ladies!!! Ruth Bush, Bev LeMaster, Rhonda Leach, Margo Wolf, Teresa Hancock, Nancy Stallard
(and also Mary Neher and Diane Hoerchler)
Thanks to our donor that gifted each teacher with a new electric pencil sharpener! Many of our sharpeners were broken or being held together with duct tape... so the teachers were thrilled with new sharpeners! THANK YOU!!!
Our picnic tables in the garden area were in need of repair, and so 4 families from St. Paul’s in Columbia, IL, bought us 5 new tables! And they will be adding umbrellas for each this Fall! Thank you, sweet families, for your support of our students! They love being able to sit outside on nice days and study.
And so, my one-year contract with Unity
has come to an end,
and I will be taking
a new job in July. I just wanted to take a moment and say what a FUN year
it has been here at Unity serving as the
Development Director!!
I have truly enjoyed supporting the students
and teachers, and all you donors and volunteers have made this job a wonderful experience!
I will continue to pray for and support Unity and pray you continue your faithful support as you have since 2003. God is doing AMAZING things here!

Miracles are happening daily as lives are being
changed for Eternity!
In His Joy, Nancy Stallard
Wish to donate?
LOTS of ways to help us!!!
You can donate online by
going to
www.unityesl.org

Or you can.....
Do you have any STOCK you wish to donate to Unity??
We'll take it!!! We have several safe and easy ways to transfer your stock to us, so just call me, Nancy Stallard, at
618-874-6605 or email: Nstallard@unityesl.org
Thrivent is here to HELP!!!
If you are a Thrivent member, you can help us in 2 ways!!!
1.       Apply for an Action Team Grant
Go to www.thrivent.com and scroll down and click on “Generosity” or click here:   Volunteer Opportunities | Thrivent Action Teams
to apply for an Action Team Grant. Every Thrivent member has TWO grants a year. If you don’t use them, you will LOSE them! Some ideas would be books for our library, bookshelves for teachers' rooms, more outdoor playtime equipment (jump ropes, skip ropes, soccer goals, sidewalk chalk), a plan to beautify our playground asphalt top and paint “games” on it like 4 square, hop scotch, etc., beautify our garden area with picnic benches and landscaping.

2.       Thrivent Choice Dollars
Remember, you can apply your Thrivent Choice Dollars to Unity! To do that, simply go to www.thrivent.com and scroll down and click on “Generosity”
Click on “Direct Choice Dollars” and find us at “Unity Lutheran Christian Elementary School.” 
Join AmazonSmile
and get free money for Unity! Whoo-hooo!!!
You can still shop Amazon, but just log in to your Amazon Smile account first and they give Unity .5% of every purchase you make! We can generate a LOT of money for Unity for FREE!!!
  1. Log on to Smile.Amazon.com
  2. Click get started to create an account.
  3. Type in Unity Lutheran Christian Elementary School, East St. Louis, & we pop up. 
  4. You then click on the link to save the charity. 
  5. Just log into smile.amazon.com to make your purchases. It is the same as logging in to Amazon.com, but if you don't log into smile first, your purchases won't count toward Unity. 
Our last staff spotlight of the year falls on Mrs. Charlene Dickerson, who is our
fun Pre-K3 teacher and is married to Rev. Dickerson. She received her degree from Mountain View College and began her teaching career in 1985 at Grace Lutheran Church and School in Dallas, Texas. She has been teaching at Unity for 11 years. She loves being the 
students' “1st school teacher” in life and teaching them all the new skills like walking in line, following instructions, and working 
with their classmates. She gets to do daily “hands-on activities” that the students love, and she says, “I enjoy getting to shape their young minds, and I love seeing the smiles on their faces when they learn something new.” Her favorite 
Bible verse is Proverbs 22:6 
 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

She knows that our 
supporters mean the world to our school and they are a God-send to our staff. Without their help, our school could not be able to reach the students academically and spiritually. She says, “We really appreciate all that you are doing and we cannot say thank you enough!”

To donate, please make checks out to "Unity Lutheran School"
and mail them to

Questions? Call us at 618-874-6605 or Email Nancy Stallard at Nstallard@unityesl.org

You can donate online by clicking here: Donate here

😊 All donations are TAX-DECUCTIBLE 😊
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For regular updates on activities at school.
Just click the links above for Instagram or Facebook.