The students, faculty and staff of South Knoxville Elementary School celebrate a
visit from Sam’s Club last week. Photo by Dan Andrews.

By Ken Lay

It was a day for celebration for South Knoxville Elementary School on Monday, Oct. 26 as students, faculty and staff were rewarded for their work by Sam’s Club.

The East Knoxville Sam’s Club location awarded the school with a $50 gift card and Sam’s Club Marketing Team Lead Debbie Hardin was pleased to be a part of last week’s celebration.

“Each year, Wal-Mart gives us these gift cards to give to schools that are deserving and being involved with this school for two years in a row, I’ve learned a lot about them,” Hardin said. “I’ve learned that they’re very small and that they have no PTO support at all, like most schools.

“This school just played on my heart and seeing the kids today just made me happy.”

Hardin noted that she works with a territory of schools from Southern Kentucky and East Tennessee.

The celebration was a surprise party and South Knoxville Elementary School principal Tanna Nicely said that it was hard to keep the surprise party under wraps.

“It was hard, especially the cake part,” Nicely said. “All thanks to Sam’s Club.

“This means a lot to us. The $50 gift card was nice but this really recognizes all the hard work that our teachers do in educating our students. This means a great deal. We’re a community school and we can always use a pair of extra hands. If anyone wants to get involved, they can go to our website or they can give us a call at the school.”

Sam’s Club’s East Knoxville store manager Byron Johnson was also pleased to be a part of the event early last week.

“This was just incredible,” Johnson said. “The teachers here do a great job.”