“WE DID IT!”
Those three words succinctly expressed the mood around the Sulphur Springs Independent School District Administration Building this morning after school officials learned the district had won a $25,000 grant from Clorox.
Sulphur Springs Elementary School, the future campus for all third and fourth graders in the city, will have a shiny, new playground thanks to the “Power a Bright Future” grant.
Thanks to the votes of people in the community, the district was declared the winner in the “Play” category of the grant contest, earning the $25,000 payday for playground equipment.
“You did such an amazing job,” SSISD Grants Administrator Sherry Chester said during a special program in the administration building this morning. “The [text] numbers 7805 and 44144 will be in our minds for a long time.”
SSISD almost doubled its money as it received the second-highest number of votes in the nation among the 1,622 schools competing for five grants. The $50,000 grand prize award for the most votes in the nation went to China Spring ISD, a small district near Waco. SSISD and China Spring were neck-and-neck throughout the 47-day voting period, with a mere handful of votes separating the two heading for the midnight deadline on Dec. 9.
Clorox representatives have said the final voting numbers will not be released.
People in 15 states and 22 school districts were voting for SSISD, Chester noted.
“The community should be cheering in the streets this morning. [We’re] so proud of their efforts,” Chester said during the special program. “We are so grateful for the grant and voting, but it’s about so much more than the money now. It’s produced real tangible benefits that money can’t buy.”
Sulphur Springs ISD is in the process of building a new middle school. Once that is finished, the current middle school facility will become Sulphur Springs Elementary, with all third and fourth graders moving from four neighborhood schools to the one central campus. Unforturnately, the existing middle school has no playground equipment. Thanks to more than 100,000 online and text votes, the district will receive the $25,000 grant to help build a new playground.
“Praise God and thank you Jesus once again! WE DID IT!” Chester wrote in an understandably enthusiastic e-mail announcing the award Thursday night.
“Your efforts will make many a young child happy for years to come as they play outside at the 3-4 campus that will be known as Sulphur Springs Elementary,” Chester wrote in her e-mail. “I already knew this was a ‘Caring Community of Champions,’ an expressed sentiment shared at the close of this competition. It is simply WONDERFUL to add the brand name ‘Clorox’ to this equation since everyone worked so hard to win the race.”
It was, indeed, a community effort. People in other Hopkins County schools asked students and parents to vote for the cause. Residents e-mailed and called friends, handed out flyers and cards. Stores displayed posters urging people to vote. During the Christmas parade, one float was devoted to getting out the vote, while a computer was set up along the parade route for people to sign up and cast votes.
Chester also thanked every person “who taught others how to text vote using their mobile device anywhere anytime, promoted the cause through every media venue throughout the area, and reminded people to vote by word of mouth everywhere you went.”
“You did an excellent job of communicating,” Chester stated. “I don’t think anyone involved at the outset could have anticipated, expected, imagined, or even predicted the great intangible rewards that evolved over the course of time. There has been an enormous sense of unity in this community along with friends and family near or far. The camaraderie has enabled us to ‘Power a Bright Future’ in Sulphur Springs and Hopkins County.”
Travis Elementary Principal Kristin Monk, who will become prinicpal at the third and fourth grade campus, presented Chester with a large vase of flowers during the program.
“Hopefully it will brighten your desk and day,” Monk said. “You have done so much with just an little e-mail and note saying, ‘We’re going to do this.’”
Monk said said when they announced to the students at her school that the district had won the grant, “the kids cheered in the classroom, and I think this is representative of what was going on across our community. They were so thankful. We are, too.”
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