WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Volunteers Spruce Up Edmunds Elementary

Volunteers Spruce Up Edmunds Elementary

Burlington, Vermont - August 24, 2009

Edmunds Elementary School, in Burlington, has seen generations of children come through its hallways. When new principal, Paul Schreiber, walked those halls this July he saw some things that needed improvement.

Schreiber noticed the bathrooms were all an off-white color, there were very few plants, and there was nothing at the front of the building to welcome students.

"It's an elementary school so to me my idea has always been it should be bright it should be colorful," said Schreiber.

Schreiber decided that at the very least he wanted to paint some inspirational signs to hang at the front entrance. If there was money, he wanted to paint the bathrooms. When he asked the Parent Teacher Organization about the projects he found out there was no extra money for either.

That is when Schreiber went to Lowe's in South Burlington. Each year every Lowe's store participates in a community improvement project called Lowe's Heroes. Schreiber described what the school needed, and store manager Delbert Gallagher immediately went to work to make all of Schreiber's ideas happen.

"We were looking for a worthy cause and he presented it in a way that kind of touched my heart a little bit in that he seemed real intent on affecting the children that were gonna come to school here," said Gallagher.

Monday night Gallagher and a team of Lowe's employees arrived at Edmunds with dozens of cans of paint, rollers, tape and all the other supplies needed to paint the bathrooms. They were joined by parents who were eager to lend a hand.

"Your kid's education is a pretty important component of their upbringing and you want them to go to a place that they feel proud of and that they look forward to going to," said parent David Jenemann, while adding touches of pink paint to one of the girls' bathrooms.

While the bathrooms were the focus of Monday night, volunteers will be back later in the week to complete more projects. They will install a walkway from the sidewalk to the front door of the school, plant flowers and bushes, and paint those signs Schreiber wants to hang at the front of the building.

Volunteers are encouraged to come out 5:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.

Bianca Slota - WCAX News