By Vicki Prichard
NKyTribune reporter
When Holmes Middle School students return to the classroom, they will find that a transformation has taken place, thanks to a team of Fidelity Investments’ employee volunteers.
School Transformation Day, and Fidelity’s role in it, began seven years ago. The annual event is designed to enhance the school’s learning environment and provide new community spaces and resources to students, teacher and parents. Projects are based upon requests from the principal and staff, who identify the needs for the upcoming academic year.
Photos courtesy Fidelity Investments
“It was one of the most awesome experiences I’ve ever been involved in,” says Holmes Middle School Principal Jeanetta Stacy, who was in her first week on the job when 158 Fidelity employee volunteers arrived to put their touches on the school.
The Transformation Day event at Holmes Middle School is one of 13 Fidelity-led events taking place around the country through October. The events are in partnership with HandsOn Network, an enterprise of Points of Light which is a global organization dedicated to volunteer service, helping revitalize learning environments and support the educational needs of schools across the country.
Since 2010, the Transformation Day has reached more than 50,000 students in 27 schools.
This year, from June through October, more than 3,000 Fidelity employees will volunteer at Transformation Day events in all of Fidelity’s regional locations and company headquarters throughout the country.
“We’re really proud that it exemplifies Fidelity’s focus on supporting the communities where our employees work and live,” says Megan Wolfer, community relations manager in Fidelity’s Covington-based office.
The Fidelity employee volunteers at Holmes Middle School installed inspirational art and signage; created flashcards for math and English; decorated lockers with encouraging notes and school supplies; enhanced the gymnasium with new cabinetry; shelving and organizational furniture; and revitalized the landscape and repaired existing outdoor furniture.
Photo courtesy Fidelity Investments
“We constantly are hearing from principals of the schools we work with that the students return in the fall and are amazed by the transformation, and are grateful that Fidelity took the time to invest in their well-being,” says Alexa Manocchio, manager for regional communications at Fidelity.
Manocchio says Fidelity supports schools, primarily middle schools, all over the country in communities where our employees work and live.
“When selecting partner schools for the Transformation Day program, Fidelity works closely with school leadership to find projects and programs that will best benefit the school, and considers the needs of the school through such factors as Title I designation, the percentage of students who receive free or reduced lunch, test scores and other metrics,” says Manocchio.
Ten percent of the students attending Holmes Middle School, she says, are homeless.
Jennifer Wright, a Fidelity volunteer employee, took part in the event this month at Holmes Middle School, and was on hand last year as well.
“It’s fantastic,” says Wright. “My team and I painted the interior hallway on one of the floors of the school which needed the paint and helped match the rest of the school and made it appealing when the students came back to school.”
A school’s environment matters to its students, says Stacy, as does a caring community.
“All those touches make school so welcoming,” says Stacy. “But I think one of the biggest things was when I was meeting people from Fidelity, and the volunteers, many of them were actually Holmes graduates, and so many of them live in the community. For them to be so hands on with their community is unbelievable.
