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Staff Photo by Angela Lewis Ryan Blevins paints a mural behind the basketball court at Children's Home Chambliss Shelter on Thursday. T-Mobile employees spent the day sprucing up the school.
While children played Thursday at the Children’s Home/Chambliss Shelter, more than 150 volunteers painted murals, resurfaced ball fields and furnished rooms to transform the area around them.
“I just have one thing to say to T-Mobile. Thank you,” said 11-year-old Victor Marquez, as he watched the employees work.
At the end of the day, the T-Mobile employee volunteers presented the agency with a $10,000 check to buy other materials that the home needed.
“All of these T-Mobile employees are doing amazing things,” said Katie Harbison, director of development at the shelter. “They’re really making the areas more usable and more fun for the children.”
Chattanooga is one of 24 cities in which T-Mobile volunteers plan to do area makeovers before the end of the year.
The employees are participants in the company’s Huddle Up campaign, a national community outreach that seeks to connect children to positive people.
Jacqueline Zurett shoveled red dirt into a wheelbarrow to make way for the new surface that was about to be put on the ballfield Thursday.
“The kids made their own list of supplies that they wanted for the center,” Ms. Zurett said. “So we followed that list, and we fulfilled it. That was awesome.”
T-Mobile employees brought the children a flat-screen television, a Nintendo Wii, books and games. Volunteers also painted murals in the shelter hallways and brightened up the basketball court and playground.
Stephanie Baxendale sat Indian-style at the outdoor basketball court as she painted a portion of a mural on the back wall. Her coworker Meghan Heath stood above her to paint designs.
“This community provides us with jobs, so why not give back to the community?” Ms. Heath said.
Ms. Baxendale, a former preschool teacher, said she was motivated to participate in the project to help young people.
“I just love children,” she said. “I’ll do anything to help in a child’s life.”
THE WORK
* T-Mobile volunteers completed several tasks at the Children’s Home/Chambliss Shelter Thursday
* Creating the T-Mobile Huddle Up Zone, a customized afterschool space stocked with a flat-screen TV, Nintendo Wii, books and games
* Enhancing the gym with sports-related murals
* Creating colorful murals in hallways
* Brightening up the basketball court and playground area with hopscotch and four-square
* Refurbishing the baseball field
Yolanda Putman has been a reporter at the Times Free Press for 11 years. She covers housing and previously covered education and crime. Yolanda is a Chattanooga native who has a master’s degree in communication from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Alabama State University. She previously worked at the Lima (Ohio) News. She enjoys running, reading and writing and is the mother of one son, Tyreese. She has also ...
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