OMHS mentors partner with OMES for Impact Day

Students in Oak Mountain High School’s Business Leadership class have spent the year helping to mentor younger students at Oak Mountain Elementary School. As the school year closed, they wanted to make an even bigger impact through Impact Day 2019 on April 10.

The Impact Day projects included installing a rock garden, helping plant raised bed gardens, assembling and painting a new bench for an outdoor courtyard, building and painting an outdoor lending library, painting stepping stones for the Pre-K student courtyard, painting three sets of corn hole boards for outdoor play areas and helping to load canned food that had been donated to Oak Mountain Missions.

The student mentors had been working all year to help third-grade students paint their legacy rocks, which were used in the rock garden. When those students return to Oak Mountain Elementary during their senior year of high school for their graduation walk, those same rocks will be in the garden for them to find as a lasting reminder of the legacy they are leaving behind.  

“Our third-graders are our seniors,” said Principal Debbie Horton. “We wanted them to leave their legacy behind and one day when they come back they will be able to walk past here and see their rock they painted.”

Horton said the Impact Day projects not only beautify the property but also meet the academic and social needs of her students, especially those that might need a little something extra to help them get through the day.

Playing a game of corn hole with a trusted adult, helping to water and tend to the plants in the raised garden beds, checking and straightening the donated books in the outdoor lending library will provide the outlet that some of these students need to help calm their brains and reset their attitude toward learning, Horton said. She also hopes that the areas will help to reinforce developmentally appropriate play and learning activities.

Submitted by Shelby County Schools