• Outreach with the Boys & Girls Club of the Salvation Army
• Working to provide Christmas gifts to area families in need, packaging clothing, food, toys & other items to those who would otherwise have nothing.
• Serving in the local soup kitchen
• Shoeboxes for Samaritan's Purse and working at their NC distribution center
• Ministry to local nursing and retirement homes
• Collecting used eye glasses for those who can' afford new prescriptions
• Jump Rope for the Heart and Hoops for the Heart with the American Heart Association
• Angel Tree projects
• Hurricane relief collections and distributions
• Raking leaves for our neighbors

MISSION TRIPS

Our annual Senior Trip is always mission oriented, so the last taste of HCA for our students is serving others instead of themselves. Our high school mission trips have included the following:

• Lynch, Kentucky
• Morristown, Tennessee
• New Orleans, Louisiana - Samaritan's Purse Katrina relief
• Enterprise, Alabama - Tornado devastation
• Queens, New York - Hospital volunteers
• Puerto Rico

HAITI

Haiti is one of the most impoverished countries in the entire world and continues to decline over time. One out of every seven people in Haiti is at the point of starvation. Many more are physically ill due to lack of medical resources or even worse spiritually ill due to the ominous presence of Voodoo in the nation. Our headmaster, Mr. Robinson, is on the Board of Directors for New Vision Ministry, a non-profit mission to St. Marc, Haiti. Since 2005 New Vision has sent dozens of teams to Haiti for medical clinics, teaching seminars, evangelism, hurricane relief and food distribution. Hickory Christian Academy has raised thousands of dollars towards this effort and has sent a few teams itself, including current students and parents within the school. We feel that this ministry opportunity is one way we can minister to the "least of these" around the world (Matt. 25:40).

Other organizations that HCA has supported and/or partnered with include Cooperative Christian Outreach Ministry (CCOM), Pregnancy Care Center of Hickory, Safe Harbor Women's Shelter, The Hickory Soup Kitchen, Spring Arbor Retirement Center, World Vision, Compassion International, Sipe's Orchard Home and Soles 4 Souls.

Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects for the students of HCA is the frequent opportunity to participate in field trips. We recognize that there is more to learning than the academic challenges within a classroom. Our students travel to areas that complement the classroom curriculum providing a hands-on appreciation for the history of our state and country.

Our older students' travel adventures have included:

• Colonial Williamsburg
• Gatlinburg, TN.
• North Carolina Outer Banks
• Charleston, SC
• Richmond, VA
• Raleigh, NC
• Arlington, VA
• Philadelphia, PA
• Baltimore, MD
• Washington, DC
• Boston, MA
• The home of Carl Sandburg in Flat Rock, NC
• A council meeting with the Chief of the Cherokee Nation
• Professional theatre productions such as Anne Frank Remembered and To Kill a Mockingbird