Volunteers restore outdoor classroom

DOVER, Del. – An outdoor classroom is Dover  is getting a much needed facelift, thanks to the hard work of volunteers.

“As we here at Lowe’s say, we have hands on, hearts in,” Stephen Freeman, Assistant Store Manager at the Lowes of Camden, said.

It was all hands on, and all hearts in, at Central Middle school on Monday, as volunteers worked through the heat to restore an outdoor classroom for students, a space that was once completely unusable.

“Their benches, their class seats that they were using, they were completely rotted to where there were beetles and other things that were actually inside of it,” Anthony Smith, a patrolman with the Dover Police Department, said.

So volunteers with the Police Athletic League and the Lowe’s of Camden wasted no time getting their gloves on and getting to work.

“They’re getting new benches, out with the old in with the new, new benches, solar lights are going to go on the actual post out here so it illuminates everything at night,” Smith said.

New benches, new lights, and a new ramp to make the classroom more accessible, all to make sure students are getting outside during the day.

“It’s important for the students to have to get outside into the environment, and be able to explore the outdoors rather than being inside of a classroom,” Freeman said.

And while the students will only spend a few years here at Central Middle School, these volunteers hope the things they learn in this outdoor classroom will stick with them much longer.

“I want to make sure that they see the future, that they actually know that the better they’re educated, the further that they can go with their success and their careers,” Smith said.