Jim Williams, Inventory Associate at our Fort Worth/Arlington store, struck up a conversation with a stranger that turned into a new playground for a local school.
For Jim, spending time with his grandchildren is one of his favorite activities. When he took them out for snow cones, he got into a conversation with one of the employees, Nancy, who happened to be a Physical Education teacher at Natha Howell Elementary School. After Nancy described the 30+ year old playground at the school, Jim went back to his store and shared her story. The school was encouraged to apply for a grant, and the next thing they knew, the grant turned into a new playground built in partnership with KaBOOM!
Natha Howell Elementary School is located in Haltom City, an inner suburb of Fort Worth, Texas, and serves over 500 students. At lot of families in this community are related to each other and spend a substantial amount of healthy, quality time together, and a new playground was just what the community needed.
On Build Day, Jim was right there alongside his fellow CarMax Associates as they came together with volunteers from the school, Ft. Worth Independent School District and the Haltom City community to build a playground for students at the school and the entire community to enjoy. When the kids saw their new play space, they were amazed. However, they weren’t the only ones excited - parents and community adults immediately started using the track. For Jim, he was “amazed at the number of volunteers who came out to make the playground such an incredible space.” Asked what he thought of the event, he shared, “It was very rewarding and I’m glad I did it.”