Building Community Relations In Unexpected Places

In the fall of 2017, Ms. Eva Reynolds (PTA President) invited me to Chesapeake Bay Middle School for their Back-to-School night. After briefly speaking with the parents/students, I was wandering around the school and met, Mr. Jacob Palo (Tech Ed teacher).

Mr. Palo and I quickly hit it off and learned we both shared a similar passion, the game of cornhole. The game of cornhole is fun, friendly, safe, portable, unisex, etc. I thought it would be fun to take a set of boards to various community functions to help build community relations. Mr. Palo agreed and told me about their after school Tech Ed club. We both thought it would be a great opportunity for the police department to work together with our youth and build a few sets of cornhole boards.

I reached out the Home Depot located on Mountain Road and they were gracious enough to sponsor all materials (lumber, hardware, paint, etc.). Home Depot even sent managers to help work on the project with the students. The students did all major work from start to finish, including but not limited to: design, cutting, painting, finishing, etc.

After several months of hard work, we wrapped up the project with a large cornhole tournament for the project contributors. Home Depot managers, police, faculty, and students all participated in the tournament. The winners of the tournament kept one set and the Police Department kept the other. In addition, during the last week of the project we were surprised with a third set of boards from the Chesapeake Bay High School Robotics Club.

The entire project was a blast from start to finish. The students (and police, ha) learned valuable carpentry skills while building relationships and trust with local law enforcement. The project would not have been possible without the tremendous support from Chesapeake Bay Middle School staff, especially Mr. Palo, PTA and Home Depot. Since the project finished, the boards have been used at several community functions and are kept at Eastern District Police Station for other community outreach officers to use. I look forward to working with the AACPS Tech Ed program in the future.