With the new school year well underway, several Georgia-based schools have now had the chance to utilize their newly designed classrooms courtesy of a state-wide School Crashers program.
Hosted by Georgia United Credit Union Foundation with donor partners like Mohawk Group, the annual program awards one deserving school a makeover grant funded by the foundation and runners-up with grants for specific projects.
Faculty and administration across Georgia apply for facility makeovers based on specific needs that would enhance their respective curriculum and campus.
This year’s award-winning application went to New Hope Middle School in Dalton, who which used the $20,000 grant to establish an inspiring and engaging environment specifically set aside for a population of nearly 30 students that have diverse academic needs, ranging from autism, intellectual disorders, physical impairments, visual impairments and oppositional defiant disorders.
[Related: How Will Education Design Change in a Post-Pandemic Environment?]
The new sensory room features floor-to-ceiling upgrades and will provide a designated area where these students can relax to calm and refocus themselves as they return to in-person instruction. Mohawk Group, located just down the street from New Hope Middle School, donated carpet for the space, which allowed the school to reallocate some of the budget to use on other items to fill and further build out the sensory room.
In addition to providing the carpet, Mohawk also supplied some of its own volunteers who, while undertaking certain precautions, helped install flooring, paint, put together furniture and set up each of the rooms.
“As a Georgia-based manufacturer, we love the fact we’re able to make a difference in our communities across the state with carpet grants that allow the School Crashers monetary grants to go even further,” says David Dembowitz, senior vice president of sales for Education and Government at Mohawk. “Learning environments for students and workplace environments for teachers and administrators play such an important role in their respective day-to-day experiences.”
Four additional public schools across metropolitan Atlanta and middle Georgia were the deserving recipients of School Crashers program grants with the addition and makeover of playgrounds and outdoor classrooms.
“Various Mohawk Group 24-by-24-inch carpet tile styles were donated to each school based on special requests and availability–approximately 440 square yards in total,” says Dembowitz. “We worked with the administrators and grant applicants to pick collections that either had specific color palettes and motifs, and/or reinforced school branding depending on the spaces where they would be installed.”
The School Crashers program is now in its seventh year and has provided 50 school makeovers totaling more than $1.5 million in improvements. Learn more and how you can help at GUCUFoundation.org/SchoolCrashers.
Read Next: Why Staying Connected to the Design Community is More Important Than Ever
