New classroom, same volunteer ethic

An addition to St. Martin Catholic School is ready for more work Wednesday. Volunteers were a major component in completing construction, which includes new classrooms, a handicap accessible sidewalk and a new playground
An addition to St. Martin Catholic School is ready for more work Wednesday. Volunteers were a major component in completing construction, which includes new classrooms, a handicap accessible sidewalk and a new playground

Work on a new first-grade classroom at St. Martin Catholic School has been underway for about a month now, and like other major construction projects completed at the school in the past year, it's all been done by volunteers.

"We just like to see the school and community in good, working order," said Aaron Bax, who has been leading the volunteers working on the new classroom.

"There's so many volunteers at St. Martin, it's hard to keep track sometimes," Bax said.

He said about six people have volunteered their time and labor on nights and weekends for the new classroom - mainly fathers of students at the school.

The new first-grade classroom is the latest in a series of new construction projects around the school within the past year.

As of last July, St. Martin had raised more than $3 million in a capital campaign to expand and renovate its facilities. Since then, additions to interior and outdoor spaces have included a second pre-K class for 3- and 4-year-olds, a ramp to make the playground accessible for all students and playground equipment for preschoolers.

St. Martin Principal Eddie Mulholland said they had volunteers "coming out of the woodwork, moving earth all over the place" when the playground work was done.

Mulholland said Russell Henley and Lee Carrender coordinated the work of lots of other diggers and levelers on the playground - "those two guys really made it happen."

"We were pretty much there the whole time," Carrender confirmed, adding the playground work took a little more than a week to complete.

Carrender's wife, Kelly, said "this is our home parish - it's nice to give back," and their investments will go toward their children's futures, too.

Heather Henley said for her husband, the volunteer work is "his way to give back to the
community he grew up in." She added, "Our kids have the opportunity to play on the same (playground) we did" - but updated.

She said the playground will also be used by children for church functions and the annual summer picnic.

Bax said about half the people he's working with on the new classroom also worked on the school's Mother Teresa Room - an enclosed tutoring area finished in September that was converted from an open breezeway connecting two buildings.

Aaron's father, Dan Bax - owner of Dan Bax Construction Co. and mayor of St. Martin - coordinated that project.

Dan Bax said the Mother Teresa Room took about two months of night and weekend volunteer work to finish, involving about a dozen people.

Aaron said the new classroom should be finished within a month. He said Wednesday the room's electrical system was being installed within the next day or two.

Mulholland had just taken down the room's old ceiling fans, and the wood floor underneath the paper protecting it is finished.

In the hall outside the room, there's a SMART Board waiting to be installed - paid for by Farmers Bank of Lohman - and the white board for the room has been donated by Central Bank, Mulholland said.

"Everything is donations," he said. Numerous local businesses have donated money, materials and time to St. Martin - including TurnKey Mobile, Chick-fil-A, Luetkemeyer Signs, Colton's Steak House and Hy-Vee.

He said the new classroom had been an after school care room but "now we need it as a first-grade room."

St. Martin will have two first-grade classes next year, and after that, expansion will move up - "there are three rooms up there (on the third floor) we'd like to use."

Though Mulholland said many volunteers shy away from public recognition of their work, it's clear they take great pride in the St. Martin community.

"We believe in a strong Catholic education, and to accommodate that, students and teachers need areas to teach," Dan Bax said.