More than 500 men, boys show up for 2016 Hoover City Dad Brigade back-to-school cleanup
An estimated 500-plus men and boys showed up at 14 Hoover schools today for the 2016 Hoover City Dad Brigade back-to-school cleanup.
There are a lot of things they could have been doing on a pretty Saturday, but these guys decided to volunteer their time and energy to help get schools ready for their Aug. 11 opening.
Several hundred men met at the Home Depot next to the Riverchase Galleria at 6:45 a.m. for a quick rally and free breakfast provided by Chick-fil-A before dispersing to the schools. Others went straight to the schools help.
Once there, they did a host of tasks, such as painting, pressure washing, building garden boxes, spreading out new pine straw, clearing weeds, trimming bushes, staining wood, moving furniture, caulking seams, picking up trash and cleaning gutters.
Berry Middle School
Berry Middle School parent Mike Shaw led a team of about 30 men and boys at Berry, and about half of them were Spain Park High School football players and coaches, Shaw said.
They put out 230 bales of pinestraw, washed windows, sprayed weeds and painted some main doorways that had not been painted since the school was built, Shaw said. “They needed it pretty bad,” he said.
Everybody had a positive attitude and was happy to be there, Shaw said.
“I thought it was great to see Hoover pulling together and people taking their own time and putting it toward schools.”
The crew was able to tackle some projects and take some of the pressure off the normal maintenance staff as they get ready for the start of school, he said. The volunteers at Berry stayed until about 2:30 p.m., and some of them may come back another day to do more touch-up work , he said.
“It was a great day,” Shaw said. “We worked really hard, and every minute was worth it.”
Greystone Elementary
About a dozen volunteers showed up at Greystone Elementary, said Kathy Wheaton, who has been principal at Greystone the past three years and is getting ready to retire at the end of August.
They had been expecting about 200 bales of pinestraw and only got 100, but the guys got on the phone, got in their trucks and came back with the other 100 bales, Wheaton said. Most of the pinestraw went in the outdoor classroom garden area, she said.
“It’s beautiful. They did a lot of pressure washing in the courtyard and out in front of the school, so it looks so much better,” she said. “Everybody had the best positive spirit ever — just a great bunch of people, just pitched in. It really, really looked nice when they left.
It was really too hot to be out doing that kind of work, but no one complained, not even the young people that were helping, Wheaton said. “They just wanted to know what we needed them to do,” she said.
Gwin Elementary
Jon Monson was among about 18 volunteers at Gwin Elementary School. He has two sons at Gwin and said he just wanted to help the principal freshen up the school before the kids come back in a few weeks.
“My wife’s up here a ton, and I think it’s a good opportunity for dads to get out here and be involved as well,” Monson said. “I want to help out Dr. (Kimberly) White and Hoover City Schools any way we can and be an example to my boys.”
Brian Sneed also was volunteering at Gwin, even though he doesn’t have any children there. He has a son about to start at Prince of Peace Catholic School, but he heard an announcement at his church, Hunter Street Baptist, that volunteers were wanted to help spruce up the schools and decided to come.
“It’s a great cause,” Sneed said. “Anything for our schools to help them out is a win.”
White said she greatly appreciated the contributions of the men.
“It’s so important for them to be able to contribute to the things that we do to beautify our school to make it an even more wonderful place for learning,” White said. “Lots of times, there are moms who are the ones who are front and center when there are projects during the school day. Sometimes it’s an opportunity like this one that gives dads a chance when they’re available to come and do something that they feel is meaningful, that they are really skilled at doing and that maybe our moms are not quite as familiar with doing … We’re just excited to have their help.”
There also were young men helping at many of the schools.
Tyler Williams, a senior at Hoover High School, said he joined his baseball team in helping out at Green Valley Elementary School during the inaugural Hoover City Dad Brigade last year. This year, he decided to come back to where he went to elementary school — Gwin — to give back.
Simmons Middle School
Copeland Scott, a 10th-grader at Hoover High, went to Simmons Middle School to help and spent part of the day spray-painting science lab tables for his former science teacher, Robert Abernathy.
“I just wanted to help out a former teacher who helped me a lot and helped me get to where I am today,” Scott said.
There were about 35 men and boys who showed up at Simmons, said Josh Hillman, one of the team captains there. They painted some of the school hallways, handrails in the football stadium and curbs in the parking lot and driveway. They also laid out new pine straw, pressure-washed some concrete areas and trimmed trees, among other tasks.
Hillman said the men likely would do two or three other projects at the school during the school year.
Ken Davis, one of the volunteers at Simmons, lives in Helena but his wife works at Simmons and his daughter attends there.
“This is where she’s going to spend the majority of the year,” he said. “I want to make sure she has a clean, well-kept environment.”
Ryan Collins, another Simmons volunteer, said with everything negative going on in the world, it’s great to be involved with a positive project like this. The kids appreciate that their parents want to be involved in their school, and the administration likes to see parents who care about something more than just their kids’ grades, he said.
“I think this is a wonderful idea.”
The Hoover City Dad Brigade was the brainchild of former Hoover school board President Derrick Murphy, who organized the event last year and this year. Murphy today said he can’t say enough how much he appreciates all the hard work put in by so many people to get schools in better shape prior to the schools’ opening. “It was a team effort,” he said.
Home Depot donated materials, Chick-fil-A provided breakfast, and Zaxby’s donated lunch for the workers. Other sponsors included Gresham, Smith & Partners, Pete’s Print, Alabama Rentals, Hoover Mayor Gary Ivey, Hoover mayoral candidate Frank Brocato and Hoover Councilman Gene Smith.
Hoover schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy said having this kind of support from dads and the community speaks to the heart of the community.
"The work they did last year was so beneficial to us," she said at the start of today's cleanup effort. "We're grateful. ... On behalf of all the children in Hoover City Schools, a great big thank you."
This article was updated at 9:39 p.m. with reports from Berry Middle School and Greystone Elementary School and photos from numerous those schools and others.