Coming out of the holiday season, Wal-Mart knows how to stay in a giving mood.
The Elizabethton store recently bestowed Happy Valley Middle School a $1,000 grant to help with further upgrades for the school’s media center, which underwent its own type of remodeling during the start of the 2016-17 school year, according to Principal Jon Minton.
“At the start of the school year, we initiated a remodel for our student media center,” Minton said. “We started looking at picking up more up-to-date technology for our students to use in the center, and it gets quite expensive. We pulled resources together to make that happen, but we’re still not finished. This $1,000 is really going to help us complete the project for the school year to give students access to 21st century technology.”
A continual shift in the technology world is nothing out of the ordinary for Lisa Shell. The assistant manager at Wal-Mart noted that the changing climate is apparent and working with children at an early age will only help prepare them for the future.
“I see it at my job every day,” Shell said. “Being able to help children at a young age, working with computers and other technology, is a great thing.”
The school was able to purchase 30 new iPads for students to use for the school year, Minton said, and the additional funding will help the school go down the road of purchasing eBooks for students to use.
“Whether we like it or not, we spend a lot on technology on a day-to-day basis at every school,” Minton said. “We just want our students to have access to the up-to-date technology so they have the best opportunities to search for the information they need and learn.”
Shell added that Wal-Mart has an allotted $10,000 available by corporate to use for grant awards, like the one for Happy Valley Middle. The store also offers a Volunteerism Always Pays (VAP) initiative.
“It’s an awesome thing when the company you work for allows you to give your time and pay to help out different organizations, like the school systems,” Shell said. “It’s an awesome thing to be able to contribute these funds.”
The award is also the second year in the row the school was able to utilize the tools available.
“It’s great to see big box stores like Wal-Mart have the types of resources available for the community,” Minton said. “It’s nice to know our local stores have these resources available for our children, and we’re very thankful for that.”