Fourth-graders clean up memorial at Bellefonte Elementary School

Steve Klein has roots that run deep at Bellefonte Elementary School. It’s one of the reasons he takes his fourth-grade class outside at the end of each school year to help maintain the grounds around the school’s memorial. It was created in memory of four individuals with connections to the school.

The class spent time during the last week of school weeding the area and then laying mulch around the memorials that recognize former second-grade teacher Deborah Saylor, former fifth-grade teacher Jean White, former first-grade student Grant Bodle and former Principal Ott Kantner. Students in Lauren Whitman’s fourth-grade class also helped with the mulching process during the second day of the landscaping efforts.

Klein said Saylor was his mentor when he began teaching in 1995.

“Thinking about her now still makes me wishy washy,” Klein said. “I have a connection with this building that runs deep and I thought I need to do something to maintain this. We do it now because it’s the right thing.”

He’s been participating in the project with his class for about 20 years.