Honda helps Spring Garden school by Staff 2 mins 0 secs ago | 0 views | 0 | 0 | | Honda of Lincoln, Ala. associates spent a recent Saturday morning sprucing up Spring Garden School. As part of Volunteer Month, they raised $3,600 to benefit the school.
Levandria Prater with Honda said they choose projects to benefit non-profit organizations. For every associate that contributes five hours of labor, Honda gives $100.
Most of the work centered on Spring Garden School’s special needs section.
“We are doing landscaping, cleanup, organized pickup,” said Prater. “We are also doing painting for the school. We might do a little grass cutting. Those are the kinds of things we are doing right now to help the school out.”
David Pike, a Honda associate who resides in the Spring Garden area, said they first counted 31 Honda Associates working on the Spring Garden site, then 34 and the final number was 36. Several associates brought spouses and other family members for a total of 57 working to improve Spring Garden School.
“Our goal was 25 to 30 people but our goal has been met now and we are going over it,” said Pike.
Pike said he and Honda Associate Rodney McFry, who also resides in the Spring Garden area, were among 26 Honda associates who helped the Piedmont Boy Scouts construct a building last year. They noted that many of those who worked on the Piedmont project returned to help out at Spring Garden School.
Pike, a seven-year veteran of Honda, shared how they found out about the need at Spring Garden.
“A lady at my church has a boy who is in the special needs class,” said Pike. “She mentioned what could be done. Rodney and I met with Principal Mike Welsh and we went from there. You see what you see today. We want to give something back and help our community.”
“We’re repainting the outside of the special needs classroom, doing a little landscaping around it,” said McFry who has been employed with Honda for more than four years. “We are also cutting down some old down trees and getting the play area for the younger kids straightened out. We’ve had a great turnout. We’ve got wives, children, husbands, everybody out working today.”
According to McFry, Honda Associates from Springville, Birmingham, Anniston, Oxford, Jacksonville, Piedmont and other areas worked on the Spring Garden project. Honda has completed similar projects in Anniston, Gadsden, Jefferson County and Talladega County among others.
“This is absolutely wonderful,” said Spring Garden School Principal Mike Welsh. “First of all, the most important thing, is to see people come out willing to help in the spirit of community service. It is just great. It is good to get some projects done, but just to see people willing to come out and help and volunteer their time on a weekend is just extraordinary. I love to see that.”
Said Welsh, “We have had construction this summer that is still going on and they are trying to finish up. We weren’t able to get to a lot of these projects that two or three of us would normally get to, so to have 30 or 35 Honda workers come in and help us knock some of these things out, is just really going to help us go a long way toward that first day of school.”
“I think it is a very good thing,” said Honda Associate Susan Lovell of Lincoln. “It helps our community plus it helps Honda people I’m very appreciative of where I work and I think it lets other people know how good Honda is to their associates.”
“I think it’s great,” said Cherrie McFry, wife of Rodney McFry. “They are helping the school out, raising money for the school. It is a good project they have going.”
Prater said Honda of Lincoln, now on three shifts, employs 4,500 people. She noted that 36 is an excellent turnout for these type of projects.
“It helps the communities out in the different counties that Honda goes into and lets them know that we support the schools and the community,” said Prater. “I think this is a good thing to give back to your community. We show them that we do care.”
