As everyone knows, education has to compete with other demands for funding. Sometimes, education needs go unmet.
Recently Knight learned that a new school, Copperfield Elementary, was having a difficult time coming up with educational supplies that older schools often have thanks to fundraising efforts. As part of our desire to give back to our community, we are proud to announce that we’ll be donating a total of $5,000 for supplies.
“As a company, we feel it’s our responsibility to help out where we can,” said Vice President Ryan Wandler. “It’s humbling to receive so much appreciation for something so simple. The teachers said some very nice things about it!”
The first part of our donation took the form of 23 planters, plus soil and seeds. Principal Patty Ann Swain recommended this, as young urban kids often don’t understand where their food comes from. As the kids are all in kindergarten to grade 4, it’s an ideal age to start learning about how things grow.
As part of the project, every classroom got one box, and seeds for a different fruit or vegetable like carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, peas, beans, radishes, or even herbs like mint.
On Monday, March 27, the entire Knight team helped load all of the supplies into one of our trucks. The Wandler family (owners and operators of Knight), then drove the supplies to the school, and helped all the kids set up the boxes.
As you can imagine, it was a messy but adorable day, with many of the youngest kids unable to stop themselves from playing in the dirt. We are pleased to report that no dirt was eaten, thanks to the kind but firm supervision by teachers, and all the seeds ended up planted.
Said teacher Jenny Taylor, “It was an amazing experience for the children and they check everyday with excitement to see our plants and watch for new sprouts! We greatly appreciate Knight Plumbing and Heating for their wonderful gift to our school and students!”
The teachers will also be on hand to ensure that there’s enough light and water for the plants going forward. We hope that these planters help the kids understand our connection to nature. Who knows, maybe we’ll help inspire some young gardener or farmer to be.
The next donations will probably take the form of books and possibly musical instruments. Stay tuned — we’ll be reporting on this in future blog posts.
