SHENANDOAH - The Shenandoah Valley Elementary School playground got a makeover in the past few days thanks to the assistance of volunteers through the Lowe's Heroes community outreach program.
Employees of Lowe's Regional Distribution Center 961 at Highridge Business Park and their family members spent at least five hours on Saturday and Monday working on the two sections of the playground. They placed timber as landscape framing, installed a chain link fence, located new stone planters and benches and spruced up the area.
While the Lowe's volunteers provided the labor, the materials were purchased through a Lowe's Heroes grant, SV Elementary Principal Barbara Wilkinson said.
"I applied for the Lowe's Heroes project, which is usually limited between $2,000 and $3,000," she said. "Well, we were in need of a new playground fence, so that's what I applied for. They usually only select one location, and we won."
Wilkinson said the playground is not just for the students.
"⦠The community uses it at night," she said. "We have after-school programs and events. I know it's used during Little League games."
According to the Lowe's Heroes webpage, the Lowe's Heroes volunteer program began more than 10 years ago. The program encourages employees in a location to team together, adopt a volunteer project with a local nonprofit organization or K-12 public school and make a difference.
Several years ago, Lowe's Heroes did a makeover of buildings and playground equipment at Gordon Community Park.
Tom Lynch, human resources coach at Lowe's RDC 961, was a team leader at the site and explained how the Lowe's Heroes program works.
"Each distribution center or store gets some money every year and we set for a task to help the community in some way, whether it's a school or a nonprofit organization," said Lynch. "Last year, we did the soup kitchen in Pottsville. This year we came here, so we're trying to spread it around the county.
Lynch said the only thing that will not be completed is the placing of mulch due to the upcoming weather. Volunteers will return in the spring to complete that task.
Eric Raulston, RDC 961 assistant general manager, was also on site working on the project. He spoke of the work done in the Gordon park and a playground in Mount Carmel in 2010.
"It's important value for the company to invest in the communities that we in," said Raulston. "Obviously with recent events with the hurricane, we doing a lot in those communities, but every year we'll do Heroes project at all Lowe's stores and distribution centers. It's an opportunity to give back to the communities where we work and operate in."
Raulston said that project ideas usually come from Lowe's employees, who may know of a needed project in their towns. He said the idea for the SV project came from an employee who belongs to the local Parent-Teacher Organization, Kathy McCabe, Shenandoah.
"At our September PTO meeting, I mentioned it to our officers," said McCabe. "Our principal was there, and we suggested her to write the letter to Lowe's on behalf of the school. When we learned about it, I was thrilled, the PTO was thrilled. ⦠And it hit home that we had a little girl who broke her arm in September in the playground, and we're glad to Lowe's that we were picked."
SV maintenance supervisor David Lukashunas was happy to see the work being done.
"We're trying to turn things around," said Lukashunas. "Lowe's has been a great help. I also want to give credit to the district's maintenance employees, who prepared the site by dismantling the fence and removing what was necessary. They also worked along with the Lowe's team for this project."
On Monday morning, the volunteers were surprised by students from several elementary classes who visited the site and gave them handmade thank-you cards.