by Maribel Rodriguez
Granger Elementary Community School Director
On this year’s Day of Caring , over 100 volunteers from three different companies including Robert W. Baird, Regence BlueCross BlueShield, and Wells Fargo gathered at Granger Elementary School. Volunteers came ready to tackle meaningful and sustainable projects for the student body, teachers, and families of Granger.
As a community school, Granger Elementary takes pride in the strong partnerships with the Promise Partners to provide comprehensive services for families that are central to the school and its community. United Way of Salt Lake and our great company volunteers completed three major projects including; book leveling for teachers’ libraries, beautification and repainting of the US map on our blacktop outside, and vision screenings for our K, 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade students.
Book leveling is essential to our students’ success in achieving increased reading levels, and this is one Granger Elementary most important goals. Book leveling allows our students to select books that are tailored to their current reading levels, and motivates students to reach increased levels of reading. Our friends at Wells Fargo completed a phenomenal feat and leveled over 1,700 books from teachers’ library collections. This sustainable project will further impact students year after year, starting with the current 950 students at Granger.
Our students receive amazing resources thanks to our partners, and this includes the critical vision screenings that take place every school year. What took five months to complete during the 2014-2015 school year, took one day on Day of Caring, in big thanks to Rich Dees, our District Nurse and our friends at Regence BlueCross BlueShield! Our Kindergarten, 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade classes, with over 650 students, all went through and completed vision screenings thanks the amazing volunteer’s diligence and dedication.
“Our Map looks so colorful now!”, “Wow, those colors are nice”, “I can’t wait to play on it again”, “Thank You”…and lots more wonderful phrases were shouted out from our student body as they looked at our friends from Robert W. Baird repainting the once weathered U.S. Map on the playground. Repainting the 29’X20’ U.S. Map was nicely tackled by the eight greatly prepared volunteers in 93 degree weather. Our students cannot get enough of their beautifully painted U.S. Map, thanks to our volunteers’ relentless work.
Three major sustainable and life changing projects came together because of the contribution of our volunteers, school staff, and United Way staff. We’d like to thank each and every one of you, from each and every one of our students at Granger, for your investment in accomplishing these projects on Day of Caring. We couldn’t have done it without you!
