WAFB
From sawing to assembling and everything in between, it was an all hands on deck efforts as men, women, and children spent the day breathing new life into the Belfair Montessori Magnet School.
“We got here this morning about 6:30, 7 o’clock this morning and started the work,” said event coordinator, Alice Woods. “Volunteers started rolling in around 8 and we’ve been working ever since.”
It was a joint effort between Forum 35 and the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC). Ansley Zehnder, a spokesperson with BRAC said she hopes the work will have a lasting effect on the school’s environment.
“Improving a physical space makes such an impact on the end users of the facility, so we are happy to do this today to help the students, the parents, and the faculty of the school and we hope that they enjoy some of the improvements that we’ve made,” Zehnder said.
The project is the biggest community service effort on record for Forum 35 with more than 70 volunteers participating. “We are so excited about having them out here,” said Claudia Brown, Magnet Site Coordinator for the school.
She said in just seven hours, the transformation is remarkable and she cannot wait for the students to witness the dramatic changes. “When they step on this campus next year knowing the way it looked last year, their eyes are going to pop wide open,” she added. “They’re going to be so excited to see the beauty around this school.”
Forum 35 has adopted Belfair Montessori Magnet, so this is the first of many projects planned for this year.