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St. John the Baptist School gets ‘extreme makeover’ |
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Written by LAURIE STEVENS, Chronicle Writer
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Friday, 04 January 2008 |
TOLEDO—About 50 volunteers from “Team Depot” descended on Toledo St. John the Baptist School with buckets of paint, new flooring and other supplies to renovate the building Dec. 13.
The daylong project was the school’s prize for winning the third annual Mini Extreme Makeover School Edition contest, sponsored by The Home Depot and the nonprofit Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful, Inc.
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John Smith, a volunteer from The Home Depot, paints the cafeteria of Toledo St. John the Baptist School Dec. 13. (Chronicle photo by Laurie Stevens) |
The Home Depot provided a $3,000 budget for improvements, and an anonymous donor from the school community donated an additional $2,000 for supplies. Employees from the home improvement store volunteered time and expertise to complete the renovations, which included new flooring, painting, and repairs and improvements to the restrooms, cafeteria and modular classroom.
Students, teachers, parents and principal Melissa Romero participated in the Lucas County contest by submitting essays describing the needs of the school.
Brian Chupp, human resources manager for The Home Depot on Secor Road in Toledo, says a few students had more whimsical requests in their essays — like a hot tub — but most children asked for practical improvements to the restrooms and other areas of the building.
In her winning essay, St. John fifth-grader Alexis Lee told judges her great-grandparents helped build St. John School, and it still looks much the same as it did when her grandparents and mother attended before her.
To support her essay, seventh-graders Emily Modrowski and Addie Slight took photographs and created a video that illustrated the needs of the school.
Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful, Inc., visited three finalist schools before selecting St. John the Baptist as the contest winner.
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