Brookwood Forest honors Sanders with deck

Nathan Pitner could tell many stories about Amy Sanders and the impact she had on Brookwood Forest Elementary School.

But one stands out in particular.

It happened a few years ago, around the time the school opened its outdoor learning space. Pitner, Brookwood Forest’s principal, found himself without a shovel while trying to plant a blueberry bush.

Sanders came to the rescue.

The former PTO president who had a ubiquitous presence at the school drove home, snagged a shovel and brought it to Pitner.

“It was just a good example of her walking through the building, seeing a need and running home and grabbing it,” he said.

Pitner’s anecdote underscores the servant’s heart Sanders possessed before she died of breast cancer in July 2018. Her loss was felt by the school and community.

“Not only was she a PTO president, but at the elementary school, she was just such a beautiful part of this marriage between our community and our schools,” Pitner said.

Sanders’ husband, Brantley, grew up in Mountain Brook and attended Brookwood Forest.

So did their four children: Mary Della, a University of Alabama freshman; Bud, a Mountain Brook High School sophomore; John Robert, a Mountain Brook Junior High School seventh-grader; and George, a Brookwood Forest fifth-grader.

Pitner said Amy Sanders was involved at the school and with the PTO for more than 10 years.

“It was kind of her home away from home,” Brantley Sanders said.

After his wife’s passing, Brantley Sanders told people interested in honoring her to donate to the school rather than send flowers to the family.

Pitner said Brookwood Forest’s PTO created a fund for Amy Sanders that received many donations.

After meeting with the family, Pitner said the school decided to use the money to build a discovery deck to augment Brookwood Forest’s outdoor learning space.

“I think she’d be pretty thrilled to be recognized in that respect,” Brantley Sanders said, “and that just makes me happy that something near and dear to her was kind of honored in that way.”

The Amy Sanders Discovery Deck is sheltered by a roof and includes a chalkboard, sensory bins and table with buckets.

In the future, Pitner said, the school plans to add scales and other measurement tools.

“The exciting thing about a space like that is as our student feedback for what the needs are grows, I would expect the space to grow as well,” Pitner said.

John Woolard, a fifth-grade science teacher at Brookwood Forest, constructed the deck over the summer with the help of former students who were working on their Eagle Scout project, Pitner said.

They completed construction before the current school year started. Like the woman it honors, the space is already making a difference.

“We’ve just already seen the dramatic impact that it makes out there because it gives kids another way to access a whole new avenue of learning,” Pitner said