Approximately 228 Comcast and community volunteers came together Sat, April 24, at Lowell School in the South Hill neighborhood in an effort to restore the school grounds in preparation for the reopening of the school this fall.
Organized by Comcast, Comcast Cares Day brings together Comcast employees and volunteers to tackle projects nationwide. Lowell School was selected for the Northwest region of Washington, which includes Burlington and Oak Harbor along with Bellingham and the remainder of Whatcom and surrounding counties. Volunteers spent the day weeding, painting and cleaning up the grounds. Missy Ferguson, principal of Lowell when it reopens, was impressed with how much the project did for the school.
“It was an incredible community effort,” she said. “We got so much accomplished and Comcast did so much extra. I came to the school a couple weeks ago and wondered ‘How is [Lowell] going to be ready for fall?’ We had such a huge turnout from the South Hill community to help bring the school back to life.”
Whatcom Middle School, which suffered heavy fire damage earlier this school year, was the first project idea Comcast came up with for Comcast Cares Day. However, the site was not safe enough for the project and a new selection had to be made. Anita Ewald, Comcast HR Generalist and Project leader, said the wife of a Comcast employee she works with suggested to her husband to nominate Lowell School for the project this year.
Lowell School has been closed for the past two school years for seismic retrofitting and budget concerns for the Bellingham School District. Since it has been closed, there has been no grounds maintenance on the site in two years, turning the kickball field into a blacktop surrounded by a jungle of weeds and turning the basketball hoops rusty and tattered.
Bringing Together The Community
“This year Comcast chose to support schools [in Washington],” Ewald said. She is the HR Generalist for Bellingham, Oak Harbor and Bellingham, and this was her seventh year heading the event in the region.
Ewald met with Ferguson and PTA president Wendy Jones and together they worked out a game plan for the site before the event, even doing some “pre-work” the weekend prior to the event.
Most of the materials for Comcast Cares Day were donated to the corporation by local businesses including machinery from Birch Equipment and paint from Stockton’s Paint in Bellingham, and lumber from Oso Lumber in Ferndale among others.
Volunteers brought family members with them of all ages. Children of Comcast employees ran around with future Lowell students, swinging buckets, shoveling dirt and helping paint both the climbing dome and the playhouse on the playground outside the front of the school. Some South Hill neighbors came to volunteer at the school -- several elderly residents of the neighborhood worked alongside parents and children preparing snacks and delegating tasks.
“People live in the [South Hill] neighborhood for a long time,” Jones said. “Some of these people don’t even have children in school anymore, but they used to and that brings them down to help and makes this an intergenerational event.”
Jobs around the school included weeding, painting, repairing the basketball hoops and the PTA donated playhouse. New grass and soil were donated for the front entrance to the school and volunteers cleared out bushes on the hill behind the school. A DJ supplied music for the volunteers in an effort to keep them motivated. Jennifer Dixey, parent of a future Lowell second-grader, walked around the school filming the project with a Flip video camera, asking volunteers questions and recording the group effort.
As the day progressed, the weather moved from cloudy and wet to bright and sunny, uplifting the mood of the workers. The children enjoyed being a part of Comcast Cares Day as well, Jones said.
“They felt like they were helping as much as their parents.”
Project Does Not Stop With Clean-up
At the end of the day, all of the repairs and fixings had been completed.
But the clean up was only a part of Comcast Cares Day. In the coming weeks, the Comcast Foundation will evaluate the national volunteer project and make money donations to each project based on volunteer turnout. Last year’s donations averaged between $25-30 per volunteer, Ewald said. The actual amount of the donation will be unclear for several weeks, but she said it could be as much as $4,000 or more.
With the grounds restored and a donation forthcoming from Comcast, Lowell School can open this fall to a new bunch of South Hill neighborhood children with a fresh face.
