Volunteers Bring Interactive Spaces to Local Elementary Schools

United to Learn Community Campus Day inspires collaboration and teamwork

Colorful paint strokes brought four-square, tic-tac-toe, and checkerboard games to life at Preston Hollow Elementary School’s new interactive playground.

On April 11, as part of United to Learn’s annual Community Campus Day Project, volunteers assembled at three Preston Hollow-area campuses to create innovative learning spaces and campus upgrades.

After careful planning, students from The Lamplighter School joined volunteers from project sponsors Cresta Fund Management and Lapis Carbon Solutions to help bring the Preston Hollow Elementary space, designed to support reading, collaboration, and social-emotional wellness, to fruition. Picnic tables and a story walk were also added to the new outdoor social learning area.

Across town, a second group of volunteers, busied with shovels, rakes, and wrenches, created a new outdoor space with raised garden beds, picnic tables, and a sensory board at Gooch Elementary. Volunteers from Options Clearing Corporation raised company-matched funds while teams of employees collaborated to create a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) classroom to engage students with the outdoors and science.

At DeGolyer Elementary, volunteers created a spirit store featuring school-branded merchandise and fun incentives designed to encourage success and build school pride. Books and bikes were among the items brought in by project sponsor Comerica and its employees for students to redeem as reward for academic achievement.

Eight additional Dallas ISD elementary schools received upgrades during United to Learn’s Community Campus Program weekend.