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MASONS PRESENT $6,000 TOWARDS PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT FOR KUTZTOWN ELEMENTARIES When the bulldozers and back hoes moved in a year and a half ago to begin work at all four of the Kutztown Area School District's elementary schools, most of the playground equipment was uprooted and removed to make room for the new additions to the buildings. Only at Maxatawny Elementary School was any left in place. Now, as the renovation and remodeling work is coming to completion, children are eyeing the empty spaces and hoping for something new to climb on. For now, the kids at Greenwich, Kutztown, and Albany elementary schools play in grassy and black topped areas adjacent to the school buildings, but thanks to help from area organizations, businesses, parents and the children themselves, money is being collected for the purchase of new play equipment, to be installed at different times at each school. According to principal Celeste Brown, Albany Elementary School is already scheduling an installation day for some of its equipment in December. Greenwich and Kutztown will have their new equipment installed in the spring. When they can climb and swing and slide again, the students will owe a big thank-you for that to the Huguenot Lodge No. 377 of Kutztown, who recently donated $6,000 to the district for playgrounds. According to the district superintendent Brenda Winkler, the Masons did not wait to be asked. "They stepped forward and offered to help raise money for playground equipment," she said at the Nov. 2 school board meeting. The Lodge raised the money through sales of chicken pot pie at the Heemet Fescht festival in September. The annual event is sponsored by Kutztown University and the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center. The Masons invited members of the four elementary schools' Parent Teacher Organizations and students to volunteer to help prepare and sell the pot pie for the two-day festival. "Let this be the first of many years we work together for the betterment of youth in the community," said Kutztown Lodge Master Willis Kelley at the school board meeting. Willis presented checks for $1,500 to a PTO representative from each of four schools. He said the donation exemplifies the mission of the Huguenot Lodge to promote and assist programs that further education and community involvement, especially when it involves children. Lodge No. 377 also sponsors annual scholarships to graduating seniors from Kutztown, Fleetwood, Brandywine and Oley high schools. Students at the schools have been doing more than wishing and hoping. Many of them have been involved in helping to raise money for the playgrounds themselves. Like Sarah Kenney, who created a PowerPoint presentation on the need for equipment; Emily Fink and Erin Zeigler, who have conducted a pennies for posies project; Zachary Noonan, who began an aluminum can collection drive to raise money; and Alec Mertz, who sells bag lunches to teachers and gives the profit to the playground fund. And there is still work to be done with the help of parent volunteers as well. Brown says that with the equipment for Albany Elementary School to be shipped this week, that school is organizing volunteers for a Dec. 2 installation date. At the other schools, fundraising continues as several projects are planned during the school year. With renovation on all of the school buildings nearly complete, new places to play during recess will be the icing on the cake of a district-wide rebuilding that began in the spring of 1999, and has cost a total of $32.7 million. |
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Huguenot Lodge No. 377 F & AM Mailing Address: |