Community joins together to beautify Roosevelt Elementary

For the students at Roosevelt Elementary, the first day of school was filled with a little extra excitement as they returned to a cleaner, more attractive school.

The improvements were the results of a service day that took place on Aug 20. Students, PTA and the L.D.S. Grant Stake teamed up to help tidy, improve and spruce up the school.

The work performed that day has had a huge impact on our campus,” Roosevelt Principal Jennifer Reed said. “They did an outstanding job.”

More than 300 volunteers turned out to perform nearly 800 service hours that morning, in addition to time spent preparing for the event. Those that joined in helped clean the building, washed  windows, pulled weeds, planted flowers, built benches for the playground, painted lines on the baseball and soccer field as well as installed base plates on the baseball diamond and removed graffiti.

“Our neighborhood knew that the school needed help, and we had an awesome turnout from the community,” Judy Hut, organizer from the L.D.S. Grant Stake said.

“Tons of painting was done, from the storage shed, a map of the United States that was painted on the playground to the school’s mascot, to a tiger in the school’s entry way,” Hut added.     

Several businesses in the community also helped out. Einstein’s provided bagels; Home Depot donated lumber and other hardware supplies and Harmons grocery pitched in with needed supplies. It was all accomplished by noon when the workers enjoyed pizza provided by Papa Johns.

Organizers also collected items to be sold at the school’s “Tiger Token Store” where students can “shop” after earning tiger tokens and tiger bucks as a reward for positive behavior and academic achievements. They are able to “buy” food, clothing, hygiene items and school supplies from the store. 

While Reed and her staff are still inventorying donations received, including some handmade fleece blankets, there is an ongoing need for supplies for the store as well as help at the school in general. Roosevelt Elementary is located at 3225 South 800 East.