Thanks to a $5,000 Lowe’s Foundation Toolbox for Education Grant and the hard work of community volunteers last weekend, students at Jefferson Terrace Elementary School now have three outdoor reading and study areas available on campus.  The grant was awarded to instructional specialist Ellen Floyd for the school.

The school held a work day Saturday, March 26, to build the designated outdoor reading and study areas at the school.  These outdoor areas will be used by community volunteers, known as Reading Buddies, who visit the school on a weekly basis to work with select students.  Each Book Buddy Bench area has been landscaped with plants, shrubs and trees and will include tables and benches.

Volunteers who helped build the outdoor study areas included those from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana’s Team Blue, the school’s partner in education; HNTB Corporation; Jones Creek Baptist Church; Forum 35; Volunteers In Public Schools; teachers, students and family members; and many others.  For example, Blake Vetera of HNTB Corporation (pictured, left) assisted fourth-grade teacher Mark Barth (right) plant gardenias at a study site.