Students wait in line for a turn in the bounce house as volunteers supervise. (Photo by Alex Sigman)

Journey Church has been holding “Have A Blast Days,” which offers daycare for parents at the church for $5 a day in Norman.
This event has been held to offer a place for kids to be during the day while schools are shut down for the Oklahoma teacher walkout.

The church has not directly supported any side of the walkout conflict, but
Journey Church has actively tried to offer their communities resources when help was needed. Journey Church sent out teams to help with tornado relief after the May tornado went through Moore, Oklahoma, in 2013.

Haley Spradlin, a staff member at Journey Church, said she loves this aspect of her church.
“We have a lot of teams ready to go when it comes to something like this, just like with the May 2013 tornado,” Spradlin said. “Journey just ran in and was very proactive and just wanted to help.”
Pastor Joel Mitchell spoke about the teachers who are members of his congregation. He said teachers had chosen to volunteer with the children at the church in the days following the walkout.
“We have teachers here in the congregation that dropped their kids off and are now at the Capitol,” Mitchell said. “Even through all of this that’s going on, they don’t want to take a break. They want to be here serving the kids, which is huge. It shows how valuable they really are.”
Journey Church has planned on hosting this event as long as the walkout lasts. They will also be hosting a teacher’s luncheon on Tuesday. They will have a bowling party for teachers at Sooner Bowl on Wednesday.