By Madison Lewis 

Each Saturday, as the sun rises over Richmond’s most southern end, a small white bus of children pulls into the parking lot in front of the Bellemeade Community Center, next to Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School. The tiniest children sprint off the bus as quickly as their neon sneakers can carry them, and the older children follow just as eagerly behind them. As they enter, they search for their tutor from the week before, or they grab the hand of someone new. Everyone sharpens their pencils, chooses a table, opens a math packet, starts to write, and Oak Grove begins. 

Every Saturday, about 20 Collegiate Upper School students spend their mornings volunteering at Bellemeade Community Center on the Southside of Richmond. The volunteers are a part of the Saturday Literacy Academy, a weekly tutoring opportunity for Hispanic children in the surrounding area.

Oak Grove students in their Thanksgiving turkey hats. Photo courtesy of Madison Lewis.

Saturday Academy began before the school was even built. Robert “Mr. Bob” Argabright II, a retired executive of the Chesapeake Corporation of Virginia and founder of the Saturday Academy at Oak Grove, is a dedicated volunteer who is deeply embedded in the Oak Grove community. Argabright says, “When I began volunteering, I was working with two 2nd grade boys, and that’s when I realized it’s a much broader issue than just those two little boys.” In 2010, Oak Grove had only five Hispanic families, with no Spanish-speaking volunteers. Upon the foundation of Oak Grove Elementary School in 2013, Argabright discovered that there would be a significant increase, to 165 Hispanic children. However, the language barrier remained unsolved. Faced with this challenge, he reached out to local private schools, and Upper School Spanish teacher Esperanza Soria-Nieto was the only one to respond. Soria-Nieto expressed Collegiate’s interest in becoming a part of the Saturday Academy at Oak Grove. 

Every Saturday, the children and volunteers met in the school, but that all changed when COVID-19 hit in 2020. The leaders of Oak Grove at the time, Zehma Herring (‘21) and Anastasia Redmond (‘21), expressed how they wanted to continue to work with these children they had connected with. Thus, Saturday Academy switched all of its programming to outside. Argabright says that “the whole situation changed at Oak Grove when COVID-19 hit, because the superintendent at the schools decided to shut all of the schools down and go to virtual learning. The problem was that they had no way of monitoring if the child was in front of the screen or not. Therefore, the kids who didn’t want to come to school weren’t going to go to virtual school. For two years, the kids were going be locked out, and that would be a disaster for our children who are already behind. That’s when Zehma reached out and said that the kids can’t go without Saturday Academy.”  

Soria-Nieto adds, “We needed to start the program again, because these kids were not attending school. They were at home on their computers with parents who didn’t speak English. I mean, nobody was helping them, really.” As Collegiate students, Herring and the other Collegiate volunteers were not officially permitted to go to Oak Grove during COVID-19. Thus, the volunteers took it upon themselves to go to Oak Grove every Saturday on their own, not as school representatives. 

Snack time at Oak Grove before heading outside. Photo credit: Madison Lewis.

Saturday Academy typically lasts two and a half hours, from 10:00-12:30. After the children have settled down and been paired up, the kids work diligently until 11 a.m. Around 11 is snack time, and the kids are offered a snack, usually fruit, by Mr. Bob. The rest of the time we do exciting activities, such as crafts, playing outside, or working in the garden. On one November weekend, the kids and volunteers made turkey hats out of construction paper, and another weekend Santa visited Oak Grove. 

One of the current student four leaders of Oak Grove, Walker Smith (’24), says that he “loves Oak Grove, as you can forge genuine personal connections with the students you tutor. Volunteering is often seen as a boring chore, but to me, time flies at Oak Grove because I am genuinely having fun!”

During COVID-19, the program had to think of more creative ways to teach these kids, since everyone had to socially distance. Argabright had the idea of building a garden, including a chicken coop and a variety of crops so that the kids could harvest the crops and take them home to their families. During these months, Saturday Academy stuck to outside games, such as soccer. This year, the program has finally transitioned to inside the community center, so that the children can still learn, regardless of the weather.

Claire Lareau (’25) says, “I’ve been going to Oak Grove almost every weekend since the beginning of my Freshman year. I think some people do service clubs just to get hours, but Oak Grove is honestly the highlight of my week. I have loved getting to know the kids and watching them grow up and learn more each year.”

Soria-Nieto explains why she is a part of the Oak Grove community: “Well, this is my program. This is what I do. This is what my Saturdays have been for the past 11 or 12 years. It’s not something that I’m forced to do; I just think that it’s crucial to the Hispanic community. They don’t have a lot of people helping them … and they just pass them from grade to grade, regardless of whether they’re able to read or not. This program works, even if it’s just on Saturdays. Instead of being at home, where they would be sitting on their computers, they’re here, where we make them active and do some work. We push them.” She added that “one of the main things of the program is the building of relationships” and how much students can learn from the Hispanic community.

Working on making Thanksgiving turkey hats. Photo credit: Madison Lewis.

For over two years now, I have dedicated my Saturdays to volunteering at Oak Grove, a commitment I’ve maintained since my Freshman year. I vividly recall my initial encounter with Oak Grove when it was only an outdoor space. A young boy enthusiastically approached me, clasped onto me from behind, and declared, “I want you to be my buddy!” That marked the beginning of my connection with Jacob, whom I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing grow and excel in various subjects over the past couple of years. Anticipating the radiant smile on Jacob’s face has become the highlight of my week. I distinctly remember a chilly day, when I casually mentioned the cold weather. Jacob promptly removed his jacket and offered it to me. These children have so much kindness and personality that often go unnoticed. According to Jacob, his favorite aspect of Oak Grove is not only playing soccer together, but also indulging in snacks.

Argabright has dedicated almost all of his time to Oak Grove over the past decade: “I’m at Oak Grove Bellemeade seven days a week, usually from 9 o’clock to 1 o’clock. One of my friends asked, ‘Bob, is that all you do?’ and I replied, ‘That’s all I want to do.’ I’ve been at it for so long it’s just life for me. We have four homeschool groups coming now, and we have 3800 elementary children in the park. So it keeps me pretty busy.” Argabright continued, “A lot of people say that you want to change the children, but the children are going to change you… and I find that to be true. I think the children have had more impact on me than I ever will on them. We don’t know how we impact other people unless somebody says something. Make sure that you thank them, and you tell somebody how much you appreciate them. That always stuck with me. We’ve had kids that started with us that are now at Maggie Walker, college, and the military … so I know this program is working.”

Featured image credit: Walker Smith.