Volunteers from store offer hands to spruce up school's courtyard
By Kirsten Ballard
Published in News on August 23, 2015 1:50 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Lowe's Heroes team leader Melissa Benton, second from left, Lowe's store manager Bobby Byers, center, and principal Karen Wellington Whichard, second from the right, celebrate after cutting the ribbon during the Lowe's Heroes reveal at Meadow Lane Elementary School.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
The Lowe's Heroes volunteer group built a series of picnic tables in the shaded areas around the playgrounds with tops decorated with games and chalkboard paint.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Second-grade teacher Brandon Kincaid uses the ramp to the teacher resource trailer for the first time during the Lowe's Heroes reveal at Meadow Lane Elementary. The ramp was half as long last year, making it impossible for him to push himself up. A longer ramp makes it easier for him to use the ramp by himself.
Students and faculty of Meadow Lane Elementary are going back in style this year.
The school's courtyard underwent an extensive facelift as part of the Lowe's Hero Day.
On Tuesday afternoon, the new courtyard was revealed to the teachers. It included new picnic tables, shaded verandahs and a new hopscotch court.
"Our campus looks absolutely wonderful," principal Karen Wellington Whichard said. "They made it an inviting campus for our students."
Melissa Benton, a Lowe's employee, approached Mrs. Wellington Whichard earlier this summer about the project. She was asked what the campus needed. Ms. Wellington Whichard took a poll of her staff.
"I asked 'What do you want? What do you need?'" she said.
The budget was $2,500. Lowe's doubled the budget from previous years. Last year, the project was at North Drive Elementary and the year before it was at the Boys and Girls Club.
Store manager and Goldsboro native Bobby Byers said the store volunteers spent every bit of their budget on the project.
"It just helps us do more. Our slogan is to help you love where you live," he said. "(The educators) are making our future brighter. They don't hear 'thank you' enough."
Twenty volunteers and employees helped with the transformation. Ms. Benton's daughter, McKenzie, helped, too. She is a rising third-grader at Meadow Lane.
"She did the hopscotch court," her mom said.
Teacher Brandon Kincaid was very excited about the changes.
"I think it's beautiful. I really like it. I think it will bring up the morale of the students. They can eat lunch outside, and that's something they really enjoy," he said.
But one change had him more excited than any of the others.
It was not the brightly painted tables or donated school supplies.
It was the ramp to the parent-resource trailer.
The Lowe's Heroes brought the ramp up to code, making it accessible for Kincaid and his wheelchair.
"It used to be a mountain," he said.
He says his co-workers had to push him up the ramp for meetings.
Now, he is able to navigate the ramp quickly.
"I'm going there every day," he said.