From our PTA President Anne Ewald:
After almost 1½ years, Albert Hill finally has a marquee sign to showcase our beautiful school! If you haven’t driven by the school in a couple weeks, it’s worth the trip to see it in person. But in the meantime, here is a photo.
Since this is Thanksgiving week, there is no better time for the PTA to express their gratitude to all of those who helped to get this job done!
First, thanks to our community partner, the
Museum District Association. They were kind enough to donate $2,500 and offered repeatedly to assist even further if we needed it. Thanks also to
Senator Glen Sturtevant, our then School Board Representative, who requested a $2,500 allocation for the sign from a discretionary fund of the Board. Those two early donations got us well on our way to our fundraising goal! Many thanks to all of our other donors – there were over 55 people/families/companies who contributed to the Annual Fund – but especially to our “Gold Star” donors. They include the
Carillon Civic Association,
Cutshaw Automotive, Kevin & Sarah Gross, Andrew & Amy Hartley, Christina & Sean Murphy, Julie & Charlie Seabury, and Susan Seabury.
With all this support, raising the money seemed to be the easy part of the job. There was a long, drawn out process to get the design approved by the City’s Urban Design Committee so that the sign complemented the historic nature of our building. This led to the brick base which is beautiful but created major problems with our budget. Enter Deanna Lewis with
Heirloom Restoration who became the PTA’s “project manager” for the sign. Deanna led efforts to obtain even more donations for the sign from
Riverside Brick & Supply Co. who donated the bricks, both
Home Depot &
Lowe’s who each donated $100 in supplies,
Essex Concrete who donated the concrete, and
McCauley Masonry who constructed the base at a fraction of the cost that others proposed. Deanna was instrumental in getting the base constructed and saved the PTA a lot of money in the process!
Again, much appreciation to all who helped in some way, whether big or small, and may we all feel a little extra pride in our school as we drive by it!
Enjoy your weekend!
Anne Ewald
AHMS PTA President
