DETROIT – Students at Greenfield Union Elementary-Middle School went weeks without one of their favorite school activities which include reading.
It all happened after vandals left everything in a disarray back in September. But all that changed when Dean of Culture, Derek Clark, got an unexpected notification.
“The manager at one of the Lowes stores just randomly sent me an email. She let me know that she was following the story from Channel 4 actually,” said Clark.
Read: Community pitches in to help rebuild reading garden on Detroit’s west side
Read more: Reading garden at Detroit elementary school trashed by vandals
Not just one, but separate Lowes stores pitched in to help donate anything they could along with volunteers to restore the garden, this time making it better than ever.
“We’re getting a new shed. New fertilizer. New flowers. New bushes. We’re using the tools that we got donated from the community to spear head this project,” Clark added.
The help doesn’t just come from the major franchise though, community members have also been working to make sure students have the best.
“We had a family that came to donate. They actually donated 637 books today,” Clark said.
Other measures are also being put into place to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
“We’re getting a new security fence. We’re getting the cameras put up today. So that way, if anything does happen, we’ll know who did it. We’re gonna have the cameras put so no angle is unseen,” Clark said.
Ultimately Clark wants this to be a lesson to students that when knocked down, you get back up.
“The kids in the building, they’re trying their hardest to look out the window. But it’s hard for them because they excited about what’s going on,” said Clark.
The reading garden will be open to students this upcoming Monday.