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By DONALD MOTTERN | Staff Writer 

PELHAM – Fathers in the Pelham community answered the call to fill the ranks of the 2024 Dad Brigade as they contributed their time and effort toward a range of projects aimed at improving the school environment at Pelham Oaks Elementary School on Saturday, July 27.

With just under two weeks remaining before the start of the school year, this annual event successfully brought together as many as 20 dads who volunteered to tackle a wide variety of maintenance and work objectives.

“This was our fourth year doing our dad brigade cleanup service day,” Pelham Oaks Principal Chase Holden said. “We started doing this in 2021, and it was born out of us trying to find a way to provide an opportunity to get dads more involved in the school. As I’m sure everyone knows—in elementary school—you see moms up here a lot more helping out. I wanted to provide an opportunity for dads to feel like they are involved in the school (in a way) that allows them to give back to the school.”

According to Holden, missions tackled by the Dad Brigade are commonly sourced directly from the teachers who are most aided by their efforts. Notes are also kept on other project ideas and maintenance tasks throughout the school year that can be addressed by the volunteer group.

“We try to get the supplies they will need beforehand and we also do sign-ups for the dads who can bring their own tools and equipment, if they have it,” Holden said. “Then we just try to knock out as many of the projects as we can during the day.”

In carrying out their missions, the dad brigade split into small squads and tackled various indoor and outdoor tasks. Inside the school, they specifically focused on constructing classroom furniture, and carrying out generic maintenance and cleaning. Outside, they pressure washed sidewalks, cleaned covered areas, repainted exterior doors, trimmed trees, pruned bushes and cleaned the roofs and gutters. With their help, the school also applied new privacy screens to some of their chain-link fences.

Since its introduction, Pelham Oaks Elementary School’s Dad Brigade has become a popular tradition amongst participating dads and the facility staff as a whole.

“It is just a good way for the dads to get up here and fellowship with other dads and give back to the school and be involved,” Holden said.

The Dad Brigade work day at Pelham Oaks was also preceded by a similar style work day at Pelham Ridge Elementary on Wednesday, July 17 when dads aided Pelham Oaks Elementary teachers in their closet clean out day.