Teachers Amanda Bartlett, Shea Williams, Evon McCurley, Liz Brannon and Kellie Boyd with Addison Elementary pre-K classes and McCurley's first grade class in front of several pallets of cleaning wipes. Courtesy Photo.
WINSTON COUNTY - Addison and Double Springs elementary schools will soon have received 30,000 packages each of Lysol® disinfecting wipes from Frontline Impact Project® thanks to Lysol’s® Here for Healthy Schools campaign.
Each of the 60,000 packages contains 80 wipes, for a whopping total of 4,800,000 wipes, which are being shared with all county schools.
The project, begun in 2020 by the Kind Foundation and the Lubetzky Family Foundation to support those on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic, partnered with the Kids in Need Foundation and Empatico as well as Lysol®️ to donate more than 665 million wipes to schools.
Addison Elementary Principal Sharon Naylor learned about the wipe giveaway from a video on social media that had been posted by Gerry Brooks, a Kentucky school administrator, author and motivational speaker, who shares humorous videos about his experiences in education.
“I really thought, you know, we might get a case—might not get anything,” Naylor said. “I just filled up a little questionnaire and sent it in, and they contacted me that we had been selected to receive wipes, and they actually sent us an entire truckload. There were 80 pallets (40 double-stacked pallets) of wipes. It was $134,000 worth of wipes.”
She explained that she didn’t even have the ability to store that many wipes at AES, so she decided to divide them up among all Winston County schools.
“I first talked to (Transportation Director) Jeff Scott in our transportation barn to see if they would be able to unload them there because (the project) required a loading dock,” she said. “He helped coordinate that. We had a local business that let us unload the truck at their business, and then Mr. Scott coordinated with our maintenance team to have those (pallets) moved to the transportation board.”
She added, “It's been a big team effort. So, (I’m) very fortunate (and) very thankful to Mr. Scott for helping me out as much as he has.”
Bart Shannon from the central office also helped with coordination. Scott, Todd Tittle from the central office and Bruce Tidwell from the maintenance department then delivered the wipes to the schools.
Every high school, the Winston County Career Academy and Double Springs Middle School received one double-stacked pallet containing 750 packages of wipes. The remaining 34 pallets were divided among the elementary schools based on the size of their student bodies. Meek and Lynn received six double-stacked pallets (4,500 packages of wipes) each while Addison and Double Springs received eleven (8,250 packages of wipes).
“Our elementary schools, especially, go through a ton of Lysol® wipes. Our kids are messier just throughout the day,” Naylor explained. “The high schools don't go through as many wipes. I mean, they wipe down and they clean and that kind of thing. But, you know, with us, some of our teachers are doing that between every class, so we go through a lot.”
She added, “Our maid (Ms. Chandler) does a great job, cleaning the halls, the fountains, all the things that are like common usage for the kids, even throughout the day ( . . .), but even some of the teachers will also at the end of the day (. . .) be wiping doorknobs in the hallway, or they might run over the fountains again, just to make sure it's being done multiple times a day. We try to cut down with illness, but you know, it's just tough, especially with the little ones.”
She noted, “The district provides cleaner for our classrooms and all of those things, but these are more convenient (. . .) for us versus a spray cleaner, but every little thing helps.”
Naylor said that the wipes AES kept should be enough for the rest of the school year, probably with some left over.
“This is just one more way to help slow the spread as much as possible without having teachers purchase out-of-pocket or asking parents for donations,” she said.
“This has been a blessing to our classrooms,” DSES Principal Heather Tucker said of the wipes her school received. “They help to daily clean surfaces and cut down on germs, so our students and faculty remain healthy. We appreciate our education partners for gifts such as this.”
After Addison’s shipment of wipes was confirmed, Tucker applied to receive another truckload and DSES too was selected as a recipient.
Those wipes, too, once they arrived, were going to be distributed among all the county schools.
Naylor thought that shipment should supply AES with wipes for most of the next school year and that the other schools should find themselves similarly well equipped.
See this story in a future edition of the Northwest Alabamian.
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