The folks who run Freedom School invited a bunch of civic leaders to a ballroom at the NASCAR Hall of Fame the other day to spread the word about the program and maybe raise a few dollars for the cause.

But no matter how many nicely dressed grown-ups you pack into a room, the day is always going to belong to kids when Freedom School is in the house. It’s going to belong to their top-of-the lungs energy. To their T-shirts whose bright colors reflect the joy on which the ministry is built. And to an optimism changing the world one child at a time.

None of this is news at Myers Park United Methodist Church, where we are hosting our fourth Freedom School. We’ve long known about the power of welcoming kids with issues in their lives for classes, field trips and a summer-long lesson on learning that life has no limits. Word to the uninvolved: You have until July 30 to get to know the 60 students – or scholars as they are known – at home in the Youth Building. Visit www.mpumc.org/freedomschool for more.

Myers Park United Methodist, by the way, was well represented at the big to-do uptown. Our scholars were hard to miss in bright green. Much of the powerful documentary on Freedom School was shot in Francis Chapel. Minister of Missions Kevin Wright was one of the adults in the film, talking about the need for the community to rally around the movement. The movement wants to grow, from the 10 summer sites now operating in Charlotte to 43 sites in the next five years. That takes money, of course – this summer, Myers Park United Methodist contributed $50,000 – and so all the grown-ups were invited for a reason.

That reason was children – the ones who may be dealing with poverty or not having both parents at home. The ones who sang the Freedom School anthem for the guests, Something Inside So Strong. The ones Marian Wright Edelman had in mind when she shared a thought display in our table’s centerpiece.

Edelman runs the Children’s Defense Fund, which runs 140 Freedom School sites around the country. “If we don’t stand up for children,” she said, “then we don’t stand for much.”