By LINDA LONG/For the Reporter

Lacey Entrekin sees giving back to her school and community, “not as a duty but a desire.”

“I just take it back to the word of God which says to offer yourself as a living sacrifice,” Lacey said on an April day as she headed to a blood drive to benefit Children’s Hospital. “Anyway I can help others is important to me.”

Service and Sports have defined Lacey’s high school experience at Evangel Christian School, a home school community sponsored by Evangel Church PCA. The graduating senior has been active in the Key Club, the school’s service organization. She served as class officer her junior and senior years, was a four-year varsity basketball team member, a varsity volleyball team manager, and the organizer of an annual powder puff football game.

According to ECS guidance counselor Sandy Snuggs, Lacey practices what she preaches having organized projects to benefit the needy locally and internationally. But, perhaps Lacey’s biggest talent lies in her relationships with her peers.

“She reaches out to every person around and finds a way to include everyone,” Snuggs said. “She is a friend to everybody and has made our student body better because of it.”

Lacey, the youngest of nine children, has always been home schooled like her brothers and sisters before her. She says she wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

“Attending home school in no way has held me back from anything that other people get to experience in their high school careers,” she said. “I’ve been on sports teams attended homecomings and proms. Home schooling is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.”

Lacey will attend Jefferson State Junior College in the fall working toward a nursing degree.