Welcome Back: Central hosts special event for students
Published 9:30 am Monday, October 9, 2017
Star Photo/Abby Morris-Frye Members of ETSU's athletic teams handed out posters and signed autographs for students.
Star Photo/Abby Morris-Frye ETSU mascot Bucky greets students.
Star Photo/Abby Morris-Frye A student smiles as he takes a trip down an inflatable slide.
Star Photo/Abby Morris-Frye Central Elementary students got the chance to shoot some hoops with members of the East Tennessee State University Men's and Women's basketball teams.
Star Photo/Abby Morris-Frye Dr. Dawn Taylor gets the students ready to begin the celebration.
Central Elementary welcomed students back for the school on Friday by welcoming some special guests to stop by for a day full of fun.
Each year, the school hosts a day early in the school year to welcome the students back.
“The gigantic reason I have this is to welcome the students back,” said Dr. Dawn Taylor, one of the coordinators for the event. “It’s so they will always know they are welcome and they are loved.”
In years past, Taylor has always tied the event to the school’s literacy initiative to celebrate the student’s achievements in reading.
“This year since our guitar education program is new I thought it would be good to shine some light on that,” Taylor said. “We also wanted to focus on our food drive.”
The school is currently collecting non-perishable food for Second Harvest Food Bank and a bit of friendly competition has broken out with the drive.
During an assembly to kick off the day on Friday, Taylor honored several students who have collected lots of food for the drive. Students Christian Peters, Salym Reed, Dustin Ruble, Bryce Garrett, and Carson Lyons each collected 20 or more canned goods for the drive. The following students collected between 15 and 20 canned items: Bryanna Arrington, Addison Rainbolt, Bentley Hill, Addi Moore, Jesse Murray, Katlyn Yates, Billy Howell, Aiden Ashburn, Emma Hays, Kaydence Hill, Ryan James, and Christian Scalf.
Several special guests stopped by the school on Friday to celebrate with the students.
Members of East Tennessee State University’s men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s baseball team, women’s softball team, and football team stopped by the school. The college athletes spoke to the students and praised them for their hard work. After handing out some posters and signing some autographs, the athletes shot some hoops and tossed some football with the younger students.
Other visitors to the school on Friday included the Central Volunteer Fire Department, Wings Air Rescue, Menchie’s, WBEJ, Wendy’s, and Bojangles.
The Parent Teacher Organization for Central Elementary contributed to the celebration by providing a couple of inflatables for the children to enjoy.
