School completes beautification project

Gaffney Middle School staff members planted new shrubbery, trees and flowers as part of a beautification project completed before Thursday's nationally televised game between Gaffney and Byrnes high schools at W.K. Brumbach Stadium. A nationally-televised football game proved the perfect time for Gaffney Middle School to showcase its latest beautification project.

New dogwood trees lined flower beds as motorists drive into the school parking lot to enter W.K. Brumbach stadium for Gaffney High's game against Byrnes Thursday, which was televised by FoxSports.

Donations from local businesses resulted in the planting of perennials, mum flowers, and shrubbery landscaped with 100 pounds of mulch the school received as a gift from Pat and Nick Wells last week.

Local resident Dawn Bridges and Gaffney Middle bookkeeper Frances Mabry worked together to plan the school's project to landscape the school grounds. District maintenance workers, custodians and school employees worked for three days to complete the new beautification project before the Byrnes game.

Gaffney Middle School has received $3,000 in recent months from school business partners, fundraising activities and donations from community residents to support the beautification effort. The school's teachers and staff have done multiple projects since 2004 in an effort to transform the appearance of the former high school.

Most recently, Gaffney Middle custodian Bevelery Millsap found a rock shaped like an arrowhead and painted an Indian head on the rock that has been cemented in place as a focal point in a flower bed by the faculty parking lot.

Maintenance workers planted the new trees and shrubbery. The City of Gaffney watered the plants in the days before the Byrnes football game.

As the stadium's final Gaffney High football season winds down, Gaffney Middle assistant principal David Smith said he hopes the beautification project will provide lots of colorful spaces for visitors to view during trips onto the school campus.

"Gaffney Middle School is a focal point on the community. With the Byrnes game on national television, this was a great time to showcase the campus for the many fans who came to the stadium," Smith said. "There are activities on our campus six days a week during the school year. We are proud of how our campus looks. We want our school to be an inviting place that the whole community can take pride in."