Rosey Grier visits Boonsboro

June 08, 2000|By TARA REILLY

After a year of working to revamp Shafer Park, about 150 Boonsboro students got a reward Thursday morning.

Fourth-graders from Boonsboro Elementary and students from Boonsboro High School began the work in September, after the Elementary School received an $11,000 Milken Family Foundation Grant to fund the makeover.

The students painted benches, planted flowers boxes and pots, installed an outdoor classroom, put in a butterfly garden, tested park stream water, planted trees, stenciled storm drains and painted a mural with a country setting on the park's bingo building.

Rosey Grier, a Milken Board Member and former Los Angeles Rams football player, was on hand during the park's Millennium Makeover celebration to congratulate the students and give them a pep talk on succeeding.

"To reach potential, you need two A's. You need an A in effort and you need an A in conduct," he said. "If you do that, you can't lose, can you? If you do that, this community is going to be the best community in the whole wide world because of your commitment and the things you're doing so well."

Grier urged the students to continue working together and used the success of the park as an example of teamwork.

"You're all part of my team, and we are so important together," he said. "If you're classmate is failing, we're all failing."

Boonsboro Mayor Charles F. Kauffman Jr. told the students it was their park and thanked them for their efforts.

Jeanne Ecton, a fourth-grade teacher at Boonsboro Elementary, said the project gave the students a sense of community and heightened their sense of ownership.

"It links the school to the community," Ecton said. "And as the students get older, they're not going to come down here and break anything, because they put it there."

The Milken Family Foundation is a national group that promotes effective ways of helping people help themselves and others to lead productive and satisfying lives.

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