Freelance writer Lee Wilson tells the story of NorthStar Church's involvement to help Fitzhugh Lee School with an urgent need. Find out more about how you can get involved serving our community at www.northstarchurch.org/community.
When you see the Fitzhugh Lee School and HAVEN Academy campus one thing is clear--it’s got character. It’s a building that has some age on it, constructed in 1918, and offers, shall we say, a “rugged” exterior and even a gym that was dedicated in person by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself.
But the school offers a lot more in terms of its personnel and its purpose.
Fitzhugh Lee and HAVEN (Hope, Achievement, Victory, Encouragement and Nobility) Academy is a transitional school that offers comprehensive special education and therapeutic support for students with severe emotional behavior and autism.
The school sits atop a hill and behind an iron gate overlooking Atlanta Road by I-285 with a faint Atlanta skyline painted in the distance.
“We are used to being the little lonely school on the top of the hill,” laughs Jean Mason, the building administrator for Fitzhugh Lee.
As Mason explains, the school is home to roughly 100 students who are assigned there by a county program. Unfortunately, there is but one boy’s and one girl’s bathroom for the entire student body that is near the front of the school, meaning students in the trailers behind the school or in the gym have to walk all the way over to use the rest room, an obviously less than desirable situation.
In some cases, students as old as 22 would have to cross through the gym to get to the rest room and interrupt a kindergarten class that was going on to do so. Situations like these made all parties involved uncomfortable and for this reason, and others, the school needs another bathroom.
Luckily, Petrina Fowler, one of the school’s social workers, attends Northstar and mentioned the issue to the church. Happy to get involved, the church agreed to renovate a boy’s and a girl’s bathroom in the gymnasium to be used by the students in time for the 2011-12 school year.
Northstar’s Mike Lindeman, a man of copious construction experience, happily volunteered to coordinate the event. He helped coordinate volunteers who cleaned out the old bathrooms, fixed some plumbing issues, and, on this particularly hot July morning, helped paint both bathrooms.
“When we got in here, there was clutter everywhere, but we have it cleaned up pretty good,” said a sweaty Lindeman as he stood in the center of one of the renovated bathrooms. “We had a plumbing issue that we fixed, and we have running water, but we came in here and built doors for every stall and we are painting each bathroom.”
Lindeman, clearly enthralled and in his element, went on to explain the various levels of the project and how he got involved.
“This is what I do for a living--writing schedules, coordinating construction projects, and what not,” said Lindeman, a project manager estimator who has been in construction since he was in high school. “I met somebody through a small group that was involved in a construction project and I got hooked in on that. After that I said that any kind of opportunity like this that comes along, I would love to be involved.”
Lindeman, a Northstar attendee for a decade, tempers his tone when he touches on what it means to get involved in the community through the church. It runs deeper than his affection for “projects.”
“I am glad that I go to a church that is willing to get involved in stuff like this,” said Lindeman. “This is what it’s all about. I mean, this is what I do, and to be able to get out here in the community and just love on some people is awesome.”
That fact is not lost on Mason, who seemed almost taken aback by the generosity of the volunteers.
“It means a lot to not only me but the parents, the teachers, and the students,” said Mason as the volunteers continued to paint in the sweltering Georgia heat. “I mean I just can’t believe it, there are all these people who just volunteered to show up and do this in the heat. Those are good people, there.”
Yes, they are. And as Lindeman stated, that is what it is all about.
