Dec 6, 2021
SHEPHERDSTOWN ROTARY DONATES DESKS TO N. JEFFERSON SCHOOL
The Shepherdstown Rotary Club has donated 10 specially built, compact, portable desks to North Jefferson Elementary School in Kearneysville.
The desks were delivered to the elementary school on Friday, December 3. The faculty and staff will decide how the desks will be distributed.
The desks were delivered by four Shepherdstown Rotary Club members: Cara Keys, who chairs the Club's Youth Service Committee; Walt Eifert, who organized and supervised the construction of the desks; Rotary club member Jennifer Wabnitz, who recommended donating to the school; and Steve Campbell the Club's, President.
The accompanying photo shows, from left to right, Eifert; Wabnitz; Keys; Vicki Bubb, North Jefferson Elementary School Counselor; Allison Bivens, School Improvement Support Specialist; and Campbell. One of the desks is in the foreground.
The Club has built a total of 110 of these desks over the past year. Based on a design developed by an interfaith charitable organization called DreamBuilders in Howard County MD, the desks were originally intended for use by children who could only attend school remotely during the Covid pandemic. However, because the desks are easy to store and move around, they remain useful for organizations that have ongoing space and resource constraints, and for disadvantaged children who have no place of their own at home to do schoolwork.
The Club donated 20 of the desks to the Shepherdstown Day Care Center in July, and another 25 to the Boys and Girls Club of the Eastern Panhandle in August. It has given 45 to the Jefferson County school system, for distribution to students who need them for home use. The Club will auction off four full size and 10 miniature replica desks at a fundraising event in the Spring of 2022 to raise funds for the Club's youth activities.