Working for play - Playground improvements part of gay club's support for neighborhood school

Working for play -
Playground improvements part of gay club's support for neighborhood school

By Tammye Nash, Staff Reporter, Dallas Voice

In many neighborhoods where they exist, residents most often consider nightclubs a bane instead of a boon. But that's not the case with JR.'s Bar & Grill - at least not as far as the students and faculty at Sam Houston Elementary School are concerned.

Employees of the Caven Enterprises, Inc.-operated club braved the heat this week to work on improving the school's playground, installing three new slides the club purchased as well as re-painting existing equipment and clearing the playground of weeds and "stickers," explained JR.'s manager Donald Solomon.

Last school year, Solomon continued, the nightclub's staff "adopted" a kindergarten class at Sam Houston Elementary as a community service project. Throughout the school year, the club's staff helped the class hold holiday parties and raise money for projects.

"This [the playground renovation] is a continuation of that," Solomon said.

Another JR.'s staffer commented, "Sam Houston Elementary is like a stepchild in the Dallas school district. The district really doesn't do much for the kids here. We just wanted to help out however we could."

And their help is certainly appreciated, said Sam Houston principal Ricardo Weir. "There's no way we could have paid for all the things they've done for us," Weir said.

"It all means a lot. We're the oldest school in the district, and we really don't get that much" in the way of improvements, he added.

"And this isn't the only thing they've done for us," Weir continued. "We [school faculty and staff] get paid to work here at the school. But these people [the JR.'s staff] are doing all of this as volunteers."

Weir added that school officials hope soon to start a tutoring program utilizing the volunteers from JR.'s. "They've asked nothing of us, and they have given so much to us. I can't tell you how much we appreciate them."