Lund’s early childhood education program was home to some very hard working volunteers from Lowe’s for two days last week. The volunteers came as part of the Lowe’s Heroes program. The program encourages employees in a location to team together, find a volunteer project with a local nonprofit organization or K–12 public school and make a difference. Through a connection with one of the preschool teachers at LECP, the South Burlington Lowe’s store chose Lund. 10 volunteers spent over 12 hours last Thursday and Friday completing various projects in the playgrounds at LECP pulled from a wishlist created by the teachers. Lowe’s donated all the labour and materials. The value of the donation was over $5,000!
The following changes were made to the playgrounds:
- A pergola with sunshade and two beautiful benches were erected next to the community garden. This will be used an outdoor gathering space for preschoolers working in the garden.
- Lattice put up along the fences to block the sight and sounds of traffic on 189.
- Four new wooden sandboxes and sand. One for each playground! The favorite is in the young toddlers playground since it quadruples the size of their previous sandbox!
- Platforms built into the corners to create a nook for art, dramatic play, gross motor skills and more
- Multiple child size picnic tables
- Three amazing mud kitchens made from recycled pallets installed. Lowe’s also donated multiple hoses so each of the kitchens could easily be filled from inside the school building.
Lowe’s is also still working to provide a kitchen cart for lunch delivery inside the program and some small climbing structures for the toddler playgrounds. Everyone at Lund is so very grateful for Lowe’s generosity and the hard work of the volunteers, the majority of whom worked here on both days in temperatures in the high 80’s.
This morning the sun was shining and the children were out playing. The sandboxes were the biggest hit with lots of digging, scooping, sand soup making, jumping, burying and just lying on the sand. Here’s some reactions from the ground level:
Preschooler S: If you take your shoes off the sand feels like you’re on a beach.
Preschooler K: The sand is good for digging and I can make sand angels.
Preschooler M: We made mud! We can put dirt and water in these sinks and they have stoppers!
Preschooler I: The sandboxes are cool. Can I make you some ice cream? (You can’t really eat it, just pretend)
Teacher: They worked so hard last week and the changes are amazing. And the group were so happy all the time they were here.
Teacher: I love the lattice, I have wanted it for a long time and it’s made such a difference blocking out the traffic and helping to keep people from coming up to the fence.
Thank you to our friends at Lowe’s. You have made an amazing difference!
