- November 19, 2024
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Students, staff and faculty at Sugar Mill Elementary School were treated to a new sight when they returned for the the fall school year.
On Monday, Aug. 7, members of the Port Orange-South Daytona Rotary Club had come together to paint the curbs around the school as part of a beautification project. The organization had also used a grant to plant bushes around the building and put fresh mulch in the playground area.
Rotary Club Treasurer Reggie Hunter said the school had originally been brought up in discussion within the Port Orange Chamber's Leadership Program—a group Hunter had been involved in 2015. According to Hunter, it was decided there should be project to make some improvements at the school.
"I found out Rotary does a grant every year where we actually look for things like this to do and where we can help something in the community," Hunter said. "The Rotary foundation will match the money."
Hunter said they received a grant, which allowed the club to redo the school's playground area. Hunter added that the playground surface had been covered in sand, which students would track into the school with their shoes.
The organization was able to pay a company to come in and dig out the sand then lay down eight inches of mulch. The club members also bought plants that they put around the school. The final step was painting all the curbs that lead up to the entrance of Sugar Mill in the area where students are dropped off for school.
"We were contacted by the principal who said that the curbing coming into the schools hadn't been painted in a long time," Hunter said, adding they were "asked if we would be interested in doing that for them as a community project."
Once the organization's members decided to focus their attention on this new project they went out and bought several gallons of yellow paint and spent Monday painting the curbs, which took about an hour and half to complete.
Once the painting was done, the Rotary Club hung up a banner welcoming everyone back to school.
"It's just like anything else—if you come into a property and it really looks nice and cared for you feel better about yourself," Hunter said. "It builds self esteem from the moment you go onto the property and the property really looks nice now."
