UF alumni returned to Gainesville over the weekend to give local children a better place to play.
From Friday to Sunday, more than 1,200 volunteers gathered at W. A. Metcalfe Elementary School in east Gainesville to renovate the school for this year’s Project Makeover.
Project Makeover, a student-run organization that annually renovates a low-income elementary school in Alachua County, was started by Joshua Jackson when he was a senior at UF in 2008.
This year, Jackson, 28, helped make Metcalfe’s play-space dream project come to life.
Donations worth about $1,000 went toward playground supplies, like a volleyball net and bases for kickball, said Christie Workman, project manager. Participants also painted game boards on picnic tables.
The biggest project was the installation of a GaGa Ball Pit, a popular new playground game that resembles dodge ball but takes place inside an octagon-shaped ring, Workman said.
Among the volunteers was Ashley Podoll, a 2013 graduate of UF. The Project Makeover veteran flew in from Denver because she said her involvement was one of the highlights of her college experience.
“It’s all about the kids who don’t have much and never really had anything given to them like that,” Podoll, 23, said, “and just showing them that we all care, and they’re thought of.”
Sarah Gummey, a school counselor at W.A. Metcalfe Elementary, said the faculty had hoped Metcalfe would be chosen by Project Makeover for several years.
“We have enough technology at our school,” Gummey said. “We have great teachers at our school, and the one thing that we are lacking is a play space for most of our students.”
Jennifer Williams, 21, dream team coordinator for Project Makeover, paints the word “KAPOW,” on the wall of the new GaGa Ball Pit. As dream team coordinator, Williams worked all year to make this dream project a reality for the students of W.A. Metcalfe Elementary School.
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 2/23/2015 under the headline “UF’s Project Makeover draws alumni back to GNV"]
Brandon Peebles, 21, an art coordinator for Project Makeover, paints an alligator on the sidewalk at W.A. Metcalfe Elementary School. Members and volunteers painted murals all around the school, including musical instruments in the music room, a Dr. Seuss themed kindergarten area and an ocean scene in the cafeteria.
