Newspaper Page Text
EDUCATION
CHAMPION
July 28 - Aug. 3, 2016 • Page 17A
TRUHTIO-KAL ™*
Oakcliff Elementary School was chosen for Georgia United Credit Union’s annual
School Crashers event in which one state school receives a facility makeover.
DeKalb County School District superintendent Stephen Green took part in “crashing”
Oakcliff Elementary with a makeover courtesy of Georgia United Credit Union.
Hundreds of volunteers made their way to Oakcliff Elementary School to help install
new carpet, apply paint, landscape, arrange books and paint a mural.
Oakcliff Elementary gets crashed
Georgia United Credit Union makes over DeKalb school courtesy of essay
by R. Scott Belzer
sbelzer@dekalbchamp.com
For one week in late July,
Oakcliff Elementary School
transformed into a volunteer
center made up of more than 300
individuals.
Their mission: to “crash” the
DeKalb County school with a
makeover consisting of a new
coat of paint, fresh carpet, redone
classrooms and new library books.
On July 19, GUCU officials,
combined with more than 300
volunteers, began “pre-crashing”
Oakcliff by making sure paint, paint
liners, project lists and food were in
place for the main event on July 22
and July 23.
“We prepped, moved books,
moved bookcases and coordinated
the new murals in the cafeteria,”
said GUCU senior vice president
Shawn Turpin. “This has really
been a week-long event. We make
sure we can get everything done in
two days and we can cleanup just
as fast.”
“This is all for the kids,” said
Stephen Green, superintendent
of DeKalb County School District
(DCSD), who participated in the
crashing event on July 22. “We’ll
know how well we did when we see
their smiling faces on the first day
of school. This is to make sure we
see those smiles when they show
up Aug. 8.”
The school will also receive
landscape upgrades in pine straw,
mulch, new signage and a front
entrance mural.
Oakcliff Elementary School third
grader Chloe Riggins and Georgia
United Credit Union (GUCU) are
to thank for the upgrades. Riggins
participated in GUCU’s annual
School Crashers program by writing
a 250-word essay explaining why
the school should receive a facility
makeover.
According to GUCU
officials, though Riggins was
the only participant from Oakcliff
Elementary, her admiration for
the school and its surrounding
community is what set her apart
from hundreds of others throughout
Georgia.
Oakcliff, located at 3151
Willow Oak Way in Doraville, seats
more than 700 DCSD elementary
students and was originally built
in 1965. In 1996, it was converted
to a “theme school” to address
overcrowding.
Runner-up schools, which will
each receive $10,000 improvement
grants, include two other DCSD
schools: Browns Mill Elementary in
Lithonia and Hambrick Elementary
in Stone Mountain. Others in
Georgia included Norcross
Elementary (Norcross), Dutchtown
Elementary (Hampton) and Tunnel
Hill Elementary (Tunnel Hill).
Turpin said the overall goal
of the school crashers event was
making DeKalb County students
happy and to ensure they have a
good place to learn.
“The looks, the smiles on
faces, the tears of parents are all
the thanks you’ll ever need to do
something like this,” Turpin said.
