Following the recent rash of mass shootings that we see in the media all too frequently these days, local volunteers are coming together to ensure safety in Elida Local Schools.
"So the idea as a district administrator and even as a school administrator, one of your top priorities is always the safety of your staff and students. All of our doors in our buildings have windows and so it's essential if there is an intruder in the building that the windows are closed," says Elida Local Schools Curriculum Director Julie Simmons.
A total of 22 volunteers from several local churches along with Elida High School students offered sewing skills to create and install over 200 custom-made blinds over every classroom door in the district. The sewing volunteer coordinator for the project, Mary Early, tells us how the design came together.
"Julie Simmons designed these and so she gave us prototypes that we then took and made our blinds from," says Mary Early, sewing volunteer coordinator from Elida Immanuel Church. And we decided that the elementary needed a little cheer in the whole thing so the elementary blinds all have designs on the classroom side but they're black on the other side," adds Early
Volunteers used bulldog themed materials and over 100 yards of fabric on the project which started in January. The coverings will be installed for the start of next school year at a time when volunteers feel the weight of importance to keep schools safe.
"Our hearts went out yesterday to those in Texas knowing that those parents that they were gonna send their kids and get them home safely only to not be so. So we just, our hearts are broken for them, you know, we really feel badly for them knowing that those kids are gone now, and maybe something we could of done to help protect them," says Jean Miller, volunteer with Lima Community Church of the Nazarene.
