Chip Buckley planned to donate some crayons for the students at Carter & MacRae Elementary School.

"Because I'm an artist," he said.

But instead, he is tutoring a third-grader at the school, 251 S. Prince St., across the street from Water Street Ministries.

"It's amazingly fulfilling," said Buckley, a member of St. James Episcopal Church. "I had an idea I would enjoy it, but I had no idea how much satisfaction I would get from it."

Since about 2000, the Mission and Justice Committee at St. James, 119 N. Duke St., has faithfully provided tutors and numerous other services for students at the school.

Last week, Buckley, who works in stained glass, brought one of his hand-crafted, 12-pointed, three-dimensional stars to show Lourdes Vargas' third-grade class.

When he walked into the classroom, Vargas was teaching a geometry lesson, demonstrated with rectangles, parallelograms and triangles on the blackboard.

Before long, Vargas was sitting with her students, and Buckley was at the blackboard, explaining how he makes his stars of isosceles triangles cut first from rectangles and then from parallelograms.

The students were mesmerized.

"A bomb could have gone off, and they wouldn't have heard it," said Buckley, who has a studio at 329 N. Queen St.

Buckley is one of about a dozen members of St. James who tutor students in math and reading at the school Monday through Thursday.

Ollie Jones, principal since 2002, has turned Carter & MacRae, with many of the poorest students in the district and many transient students, into a model for success.

"And we couldn't have done it without St. James," she said.

Tutoring is just one of many things the church does for the school, Jones said, noting that some of the greatest needs are for students of the working poor who fall between the cracks, especially in the current economy.

"Ollie's Closet is a huge piece of what they do," she said, referring to school supplies and other material needs, including hats, gloves and shoes, that the church provides.

"We had a family that could get food stamps but didn't have a stove and refrigerator," Jones said. "I called St. James and had a stove and refrigerator immediately.

"We've built up a relationship of trust. I celebrate that so much. They are a joy to my life."

Dr. Clark McSparren, retired Lancaster pediatrician and St. James member, runs a mini-medical clinic and tutors at the school.

This week, Jones met with him to discuss a student who has new glasses but still can't see.

"He needs to see an ophthalmologist, not an optometrist," Jones said. "Dr. McSparren will make that happen."

The Rev. David Peck, St. James rector, said the church has a "deep commitment to education" beginning with its founding in the 1740s by an order that assisted in the education of Native Americans.

Peck said some of the parish's distinguished educators in successive generations include Thomas Burrowes, one of the founders of the teacher-training "normal school" that is now Millersville University, and J.P. McCaskey, teacher and principal at the former Boys High School.

Helen Lockard, a member of St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 10 W. Farnum St., began the volunteer tutoring program at Carter & MacRae in 2000.

"One day I came out of church and looked at the school and said to myself, 'We need to adopt that school.' "

"We called (the program) 'A Cup of Cold Water,' from Matthew 10:42," she said. "If somebody needs something, we are going to provide it."

In 2000, the Rev. Peter Eaton, then rector of St. James and wanting to continue its tradition in education, called Carter & MacRae with an offer of help. The school put him in touch with Lockard.

As St. Paul's congregation became less robust, St. James took on more of the tutoring responsibilities. Lockard, 87, continues to serve as volunteer coordinator for the school, with a roster of 23 tutors, including many residents of Willow Valley, where she resides.

It was after hearing Lockard speak about the program at St. James in September that Buckley decided to become a tutor instead of donating crayons to "Ollie's Closet."