Casey Bartlett was a High Five staff member and then director during three years working with the program.
“I spent six to eight hours per week planning and attending Tuesday night meetings, coordinating staff meetings, and motivating student staff members to stay involved in the lives of the junior high kids,” says Bartlett. He also attended sports games and visited local Adventist elementary schools each week to spend time with the kids.
Bartlett says he learned that “investing in a person rather than a program changes lives and has unbelievable impact. Programs come and go, but people will always be with us.”
Bartlett is now a pastor in South Dakota and says, “My experience with High Five, coupled with my phenomenal education at WWU, taught me that the people, not my ideas, are what can truly transform the church.”
