Each morning of the last week of school before the break, Dec. 13-17, a different grade level was taken to the cafeteria for a screening of the movie “The Polar Express” complete with hot chocolate while Garrett showed off a model train display at the back of the cafeteria by the main entrance to the school.
“Chad wanted to show The Polar Express and I said I can bring my trains,” Garrett said on Thursday that week. “Over the decades, I have gotten a lot of train sets and gauges. So far, the kids have loved it.”
Garrett set up his display but there were small changes all week that kept students coming back to see if they could find them. The display featured a large snow-covered mountain for the trains to enter on one side and emerge on the other. That was created by art teacher Samantha French, who also decorated nearby hallway walls with a train theme, including a train car with students’ silhouettes as passengers in the windows.
Perched on top of the mountain was a small green figure of the Grinch, along with several trees and a snowman. Garrett said he gave dimensions to the art teacher for the mountain and they made the entrance and exit holes larger than needed in case it would ever be needed for a larger-scale train to use it. The snowman was a midweek addition by Garrett but not all such items were of his doing.
“We have a mysterious donor who has made a number of donations,” he said pointing to the Christmas box car with a small squishy green turtle riding the rails. “There is also a figure of Mr. Hinton as a boy. I move everything every day so kids have to look for things.”
A billboard on the roof of one of the buildings carries a Christmas message for “Mother Maud’s Apple Pies” in tribute to the namesake of the school.
With only one day to go in the week, Garrett was planning a special appearance the next morning, when Santa Claus would show up on the roof of one of the buildings in the display.
The display includes stores and houses and even a large building with a helipad with the helicopter’s blades turning. He honored the mail lady who delivers mail to the school with a Postal Service truck in the display.
It’s not just the school students who enjoyed the train display, either. Teachers and other school staff are coming around frequently. As he talks, teacher Lisa Mesler walks by leading her class to the bookmobile out front of the school. He greets her and calls her an “engineer in training.” Garrett, who is employed as SRO through the Sheriff’s Office, said people from the Sheriff’s department have stopped in to the school to see it, too.
“The kids see that and say, ‘Deputy Don, you got friends.’ The kids have been good about it and staff talks about how it relates to school – with art, imagination and planning,” he said. “Kids don’t like the green wall (behind the display). We’ll have to decorate it next year.”
The train system responds to a remote control unit which includes sounding the whistle and bell, something he lets everyone operate, much to the enjoyment of the kids of all ages.
“I want the kids to use their imagination. They spend so much time on their video games and YouTube, it’s good for them to see something that moves,” Garrett said. “The kids say there are no people on the train. I tell them, ‘You are on the train.’ I tell the kids for this week it’s your train.”
Garrett said he has noticed a difference in the way students of different grade levels appreciate the display. Fourth and fifth graders focus on the controls, while second and third graders are more into what’s on the table. The younger kids want to plan something.
“This was Chad’s gift to the teachers and the kids,” Garret said. “It’s all about dreams and you can make dreams come true.”
Hinton said it fit perfectly into what he had planned for the last week before the break.
“Don asked about a train display and I said it fit perfectly with what I wanted to do,” Hinton said. “Last year, in the final year in the old building, we turned a hallway into Whoville. It is a gift to the teachers. It gave them some time, one thing there is not enough of.”
The principal said before COVID, there would be a large assembly in the gym for all grade levels together, but with the need to keep distance, having something for each grade level different days of the week, the movie, hot chocolate and train display worked nicely.
“These are things they’ll remember,” Hinton said.
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