Turbeville schools prepare for renovations, ask for community's help

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Mayor of Turbeville Dwayne Howell and Donald Hardy are trying to make the Turbeville community a better place, one locker room renovation at a time. Most of the facilities at East Clarendon Middle-High School (EC) in Turbeville were built around the 1950’s, and while a large portion of the school has been renovated and updated, Clarendon County School District Three has had to wait on addressing some issues due to bigger renovation priorities. Recently, Howell and Hardy noticed a need for a renovation that had long been forgotten and decided to reach out to the community for help. “The school district has always been wonderful in making sure that we’ve had everything that we need here, but like every school district, there are some limitations on what we can do with the funding we have” Hardy said. “We’ve been wanting to update the locker rooms for a long time now, so we decided we wanted to help.” For this project, they hope to be able to renovate both the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms so that physical education (PE) students and basketball teams have a place to dress and change. Howell said that students in PE classes currently cannot change for class, which limits the activities that they are able to do in PE. The six EC basketball teams are also affected by the state of the locker rooms, and they often have to dress at home and have very little space for halftime meetings in the locker rooms. Howell said that the locker room renovations will have a positive impact on the school both academically and athletically. He also said that having updated locker rooms and athletic facilities will help bolster the school’s reputation in other communities as well. “EC is the heart of the community, and we want to keep the school in the best condition possible,” Howell said. “Renovating these locker rooms will allow for our basketball teams to have their own area to prepare for games. These renovations will also help with the school’s overall reputation. When visiting basketball teams come, we want to make a good impression on visiting coaches and athletes. That will bring more positive attention to the school.” In order to help generate funds for the renovation, Howell and Hardy have been organizing fundraising opportunities and asking for donations around the community. According to Hardy, each donation made for this project will be a tax deductible donation and will be deposited into a separate account and will only be used on the locker room renovations project. He said all donations and finances collected will be held and distributed by the financial team at Clarendon County School District Three. While Hardy and Howell have their own vision of what the new locker rooms will look like, the amount of work that they can do will depend on the funds and donations offered by the community. They also said that donations and help are not restricted to financial donations; they are appreciative of any help that the public can give during the renovation process. Howell also encouraged residents of the community to come view the locker rooms and keep up with the progress of the renovation. Howell and Hardy said that they were appreciative of the help and support that Clarendon County School District Three has given them throughout the project, and they are both excited to see the positive effects of the new locker rooms. “The school district has been so helpful and supportive of this project,” Hardy said. “We just saw a need and wanted to help encourage the community to give our students the best facilities possible. We’re excited to see how much support we get from the community and how it will affect our students.”