Training up little leaders
The recent improvements to the Tot Lot in Crestline were the project of not just this year’s Leadership Mountain Brook class but also the other community members they brought on board.
As a part of their service projects for the year, the Mountain Brook High School students planned Little Leader Day, a two-hour introduction to the inner workings of the city and how to serve it, held on April 26. The students planned meetings with Police Chief Ted Cook, Fire Chief Robert Ezekiel, Emmet O’Neal Library IT department head Marylyn Eubank and City Manager Sam Gaston, offering mini versions of what they themselves had learned from city leaders a few months earlier. Each city leader talked to the fourth- through sixth-grade participants about the character traits important to have as a leader, student Sophie Britt said.
“We learned so much about the city,” Leadership Mountain Brook student Julia Bell Pope said. “We wanted to share it with everyone else.”
The day ended with a service project at the Tot Lot in Crestline Village. Another Leadership Mountain Brook group spearheaded adding new pine straw and mulch to the area as well as installing and painting a new fence. The city demolished the old fence, and Good Fences, a new Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce member, donated the new one at the request of the students.
The whole group finished laying mulch together before a ribbon-cutting at the playground at the conclusion of the event. The Little Leader participants also painted their handprints on the new fence.
“The class came together to do all the work on Little Leader Day,” said Amber Benson, the MBHS teacher who leads the Leadership class along with Hannon Davidson of the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce.
Leadership Mountain Brook plans for Little Leader Day to be an annual event that introduces kids to the city and acts as a fundraiser for future class projects.
Class members organizing the Tot Lot project were Benjamin Rosenthal, Sophie Bluestein, Anna Matthews, Annie Leonelli and Robert Waudby. Members organizing Little Leader Day were Sophie Brint, Julia Bell Pope, Courtney Neimann, Katherine Grace Moore, Carter Hancock and Lucy Gardner.
More Leadership Mountain Brook Projects
Recycled Benches
The Leadership class has been working all year on a redesign of the mall area of the high school, and as a part of that, one group of students is working with the city’s Parks and Recreation department to move the mall’s current benches and picnic tables to parks, bus stops and other public areas in the city. This process will begin once the design on the mall begins this summer.
Dining Guide
Starting June 1, a new dining guide for Mountain Brook restaurants will be available online thanks to a group of students. The website, mtnbrok.wix.com/dining-guide, will offer descriptions and contact information for each eatery. Students hope that both residents and visitors will use the site to explore culinary options around them.