Goodwill is contagious.
When Jefferson Elementary custodian Mike Barnes donated a hand-built wooden castle to the school’s students, others took note, including the Iola Police Department and Walmart.
Shandie Wrench of the superstore, and IPD’s Mike Ford and Jared Warner have teamed up with Barnes to build two more structures similar to the castle sitting in the Jefferson Elementary playground. The creations will be donated to McKinley and Lincoln Elementary.
Barns said after the 9-foot-tall play palace was delivered and set on the school’s grounds, the Jefferson students were ecstatic; McKinley and Lincoln students, not so much.
“A lot of the kids were jealous,” Barnes said.
Luckily for Barnes and the little ones who felt left out, Wrench, Warner, Ford and wife Nancy offered to build two more.
“I wasn’t going to be able to afford to build any more, not out of my own pocket,” Barnes said.
Barnes contributed some funds to the project while IPD picked up the rest of the tab. Diebolt Lumber in LaHarpe sold the materials at a 50 percent discount.
“Giving spreads,” Ford said.
And that’s no lie. Barnes said Windsor Place personnel notified him that another resident has offered to build a fort-like structure to be placed on its campus as well.
The forts for McKinley and Lincoln are expected to be delivered by month’s end.
Barnes said he has plans to turn the fort-building efforts into a full-time fundraiser for the local parent-teacher organizations.
The idea is the PTOs would provide funds to purchase materials and Barnes would build the forts. Then, the structures would be raffled off with proceeds going back to the PTO.