Cycling will now be part of the curriculum at Lakeside Primary, and Lakeside Intermediate will get new soccer equipment, thanks to Saturday's Touch-A-Truck fundraiser, which raised nearly $10,000.
Lakeside's Primary and Intermediate PTOs held the fundraiser, which allowed children to get to see and touch various large vehicles, including ambulances, fire trucks, police vehicles and tractors, and get their face painted.
Lauren Jenkins, director of projects for the Lakeside PTO, said 10 local businesses or organizations provided vehicles so kids could "climb on them, explore them, honk the horn."
"We raised, with grants and donations, or grants and sponsors, we raised just under $10,000," Jenkins said.
"The event was to raise money for some programs that the principals at the Lakeside Primary and Intermediate buildings approached us about," Jenkins said.
At the Primary building, coach Ben Pettigrew "wanted to start a program called 'All Kids Bike.' It is a program where he'll have the curriculum to teach students in kindergarten and first grade how to ride a bike and then following their completion of that program, we're going to be able to provide bikes to students," Jenkins said.
"And then in the Intermediate building, they were looking for sports equipment, specifically soccer balls and goals, at this time, and we're going to be able to fund those items as well as more sports equipment for their playground and recess and extracurricular times," she said.
"We had corporate sponsors who sponsored the event with donations, so that way we could provide the whole afternoon free of charge," Jenkins said.
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"We will be paying for, there's a curriculum that we'll purchase, and supplies with that including bikes, that he'll use to teach the students, and then we'll also be able to provide students who need bikes once they complete the program, with bikes and helmets," she said.
The soccer equipment at the Intermediate school "gets a lot of wear and tear, and to have new, nice equipment for them to play with was important for that building," Jenkins said.
Touch-A-Tuck was an idea started by Jenkins. "Actually, my husband owns a construction company, John Jenkins Contracting, and so we had access to vehicles, so I had a good start on it and I knew it was something with my children, and with my children's friends that was always a hit to get to be on the big trucks," she said.
Jenkins said she supported helping the schools with these needs because "I just think it's really important to, you know, be able to address not just their scholastic needs but physical education needs," she said. "I think it's a great skill, a life skill, to be able to ride a bike and the confidence that that builds."
An hour and a half into the event, Jenkins said the fundraiser had been well attended.
"I know that we've had well over 100 families come through, and a lot of families have come and been here for a long period, and we're glad to see that and we're glad to be on campus and have community and build that community here at our school," she said.
Also on hand for the event were both of the schools' principals and Lakeside Superintendent Shawn Cook.
"You know, I think it's amazing," Cook said, noting he had "very little" to do with the organizing of the fundraiser.
"Mrs. Jenkins here was kind of the person who had the idea and it's an awesome idea to help fund the bike program and also soccer goals, from our PTO program," Cook said. "I just love seeing them use this area and bringing the community back out. We talked about, during COVID, you know, so many of our families didn't get to be together and parents really like to know parents of their kids' friends."
"I think it just goes to kind of show how great our PTO is and getting the community involved back in the school. Like Mr. Cook said, with COVID it was so hard to have the community involved, so to get to do something like and just get everybody out's been great," Sandy Hawkins, Intermediate principal, said.
Bambi Norman, Primary principal, said she loved the effort by the PTO.
"I want to thank our PTO. They have done a wonderful job, they always do, but this event is extra special because our students do get to come out and they get to play with each other right here in a safe area and enjoy all these big trucks," she said.
"We really want to thank everyone that's come out. It's great to see our kids in the community out. We even have students here that don't go to Lakeside, so we're happy they've come out and joined our community and our family here at Lakeside," Norman said, calling the PTO "very essential."
The PTO "bridges our families together with the school and we all get to work together," she said. "They do so many things that people have no idea that they do, so we appreciate all the moms and the dads that are a part of our PTO and support our students. They also support our teachers in a big way so we really appreciate them and they are vital to our school system."
An artist paints Ellie Irwin’s face while Courtney Irwin holds her head steady Saturday at Touch-A-Truck. - Photo by Tanner Newton of The Sentinel-Record