With the Elizabethton City School System continually looking at ways to help students, helping came with ease to Thomas Davis.
The financial advisor with the Edward Jones Investments branch located on Lawson Avenue in the city made a surprise visit to T.A. Dugger Junior High Thursday morning and donated items to be used for the school’s newly created sensory room.
“Our city school system does a fantastic job to help their students be successful, and this is just another opportunity,” Davis said.
The room at TAD is the third room recently put in by the school system with Elizabethton High School and Harold McCormick Elementary unveiling their rooms earlier in the year.
Davis arrived in the classroom and presented the items to students in Mrs. Regina Mullins’, inclusive language arts teacher, classroom. Smiles were had by all as school officials looked on to see students expressing their gratitude.
“It is absolutely critical to our children and their ability to learn,” Mullins added about the items. “Mr. Davis is a blessing to our school system and to our classroom to donate all these beautiful gifts.”
Davis was quick to defer the praise.
“It’s great, as always, to do something for your community but I’d say the school system deserves all the credit,” Davis told the Elizabethton Star. “Not only with this, but with all the different programs they have going on that other schools either don’t have or haven’t even thought of yet.
“This was Dr. (Myra) Newman’s idea,” he continued. “We were talking about the sensory room at EHS and the need of having one here … and I said I was in. We started talking, started planning and here we are.”
The role of a sensory room is primarily geared to students with sensory disabilities with calming methods and devices for children and adults.
“It’s such a huge benefit,” Mullins said. “The children can go in there and have a safe place where they can release and maybe if they’re having a bad day, go inside to calm themselves down, monitor their behavior and come back to the classroom to have a better opportunity of learning.”
While plans for growing the room are on the horizon, the students will utilize the items to their fullest extent.
“We can use the items we have now,” Mullins said. “We can certainly put the room to use now on a daily basis.”