As she headed toward the office after being summoned there via the intercom by principal Sandra Kent, Angela Holcomb began to ponder the different possibilities.
Perhaps a parent had shown up and needed to talk to her. If that was the case, she hoped mom or dad wasn't going to be angry.
But by the time Holcomb arrived at the office and learned why she had been called there, there was hardly any anger involved. In fact, the room was soon filled with shrieks of joy.
“When we found out Goody's had selected us for a $10,000 grant, the whole office just busted out,” says Holcomb, a third-grade teacher at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School.
“Everyone was just so happy.”
Goody's Family Clothing Good Deeds for Schools is a grant program which helps schools pay for things which might not be accounted for in a regular education budget. Goody's committed to award 50 grants of $10,000 each – for a total of $500,000 – to schools located in communities which feature one of the stores. The Goody's Family Clothing in Bartlesville is located at Washington Park Mall.
Nationwide, a multitude of applications were sent in for one of the 50 grants of $10,000. Wilson was one of 11 schools within the state of Oklahoma which was selected.
“Grants in general give us the opportunity to expand programs which we perhaps otherwise wouldn't have the funds to do,” says Kent. “The money from this grant will go toward our courtyard.”
The Wilson building surrounds an interior courtyard which will be made over into a Multiple Intelligence Garden . Plans call for the area – which will measure approximately 1,920 square feet – to feature paved walkways, benches, outdoor musical instruments, planting beds, a rain wheel and landscaping. The hope is that it will be utilized for a variety of purposes as students hone a wide array of learning skills.
“We will have one area that will integrate weather and math skills,” notes Holcomb. “The students will be able to label plant life in the garden and do still-life drawings, also.
“The benches will be used for private reflection and outdoor lessons. We envision a lot of different uses for the area.”
Kent initially informed some Wilson instructors of the Goody's Good Deeds for Schools grant program as she passed the application form on to them. Holcomb and several other teachers – including Karen Salge, Julie Silva, Vanessa Wallace, Shelly White, Chapel Zellers and Laurie Marshall – then teamed up to begin work on writing up the grant request. Justin Marshall, a landscape contractor who owns Maisema Land & Waterscapes and is Laurie's husband, volunteered to draw up the plans for the Multiple Intelligence Garden.
Wilson fourth graders wrote letters and drew pictures of the proposed Multiple Intelligence Garden , spouting its possible virtues. The youngsters' contributions were presented as part of the school's grant request package, which was submitted in December. Two months later, Wilson staff members learned they had been selected as one of more than 300 program semifinalists, thereby putting them closer to one of the 50 coveted grants. Last week came the call from Goody's corporate offices which delivered the good news and sent the main office at Wilson into a joyous uproar.
Goody's is scheduled to make a special presentation of the $10,000 grant check at Wilson on May 2. Work should begin soon on the Multiple Intelligence Garden in the hopes that it can be near completion by the beginning of the 2008-09 academic year, which begins in August. More money may have to be raised for all proposed facets of the garden to be implemented.
“It was very exciting whenever we found out we had received the grant,” says Holcomb. “We worked really hard at putting together the application package.
“It's fabulous that Goody's can contribute to our school and help make it a better place.”
Now just an overgrown courtyard in the middle of the Woodrow Wilson Elementary School building, this space will soon be transformed into a Multiple Intelligence Garden thanks to a $10,000 grant from Goody's Family Clothing's Good Deeds for Schools program.