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Schools

Day of Service Helps Henderson Middle Community

The school and Hands On Atlanta teamed up on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday to gather volunteers and paint the school's walls.

Part of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream was to bridge barriers and give strength and power to self and communities.

did just that as it teamed up with Hands On Atlanta and the community in order to work together as part of the MLK Day of Service on Monday.

Jon McKenna, co-chair of the school's PTA grounds committee, asked Principal Terese Allen what she needed done if volunteers were brought into the school to work. The biggest need, Allen said, was to have the halls painted.

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Hands on Atlanta supplied hundreds of paintbrushes and paint as well as volunteers from Georgia Perimeter College and Starbucks.

“We started at 8:30 in the morning, and we are planning on going until the paint is through,” McKenna said.

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By 11 a.m. painting teams were still going strong. Kids and adults laughed with paint on their fingers and smiled as they helped each other onto ladders.

Ginger Powell and her family had been painting the halls since the event started on Monday morning. Powell’s daughter, Sarah Ann, is a freshman at and previously attended Henderson Middle.

 “Sarah Ann still plays softball here because Lakeside is renovating, so we’re still here a lot. We wanted to do our part and help out," Ginger Powell said.

McKenna said he was pleased with the number of volunteers.

“We are overflowing with volunteers,” he said.

Volunteers also worked on the sidewalk and the visitor parking in front of the school, shoveling lingering ice and snow.

“That was my wife’s idea,” McKenna said. “She said we needed to chip the ice away before someone falls and breaks their neck.”

McKenna said that he just wanted to get the job done to help the school. 

“I want to make the biggest splash with the people we have here. If we knock out a big job then I’m happy," he said.

Ginger Powell said she was just happy to be out of the house after being snowed in the week before.

“It got us out of bed on an off day and got us out of the house to do something worthy,” she said.

CORRECTION: Carroll Nordan was identified as Henderson Middle School's principal in this article. Terese Allen is the principal.

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