At least 350 volunteers show up for 2022 Hoover City Dad Brigade

At least 350 volunteers turned out for the 2022 Hoover City Dad Brigade back-to-school cleanup effort Saturday morning, organizer Derrick Murphy said.

The men and boys — and some women and girls — went to work helping clean up the exterior of 16 Hoover public schools, doing jobs such as spreading pine straw and mulch, trimming trees, bushes and hedges, pressure washing and picking up trash.

Gwin Elementary School Principal Kimberly White said she always appreciates the volunteers who come out to get her school looking better before students return. Each year, there’s a committed group of dads who show up to help, as well as dads who are new to the school, sometimes moms and other community members, she said.

“The Dad Brigade is a neat community builder and a great way to get our families involved in a very different and very meaningful way,” White said.

Gwin also had some people with no current ties to the school who donated things for the cleanup effort, such as water, Gatorade and hand sanitizer, she said.

The dozen or so dads who showed up at Gwin also planned to, if they had time, put together a gaga ball pit for the students for a game that is similar to dodgeball, cleanup captain Brett Reach said.

Reach, who has a wife teaching at Gwin and son attending there, said he’s been involved in the Dad Brigade for many years and enjoys helping out.

Michael Jones, a dad who volunteered to help at Greystone Elementary, said this is his third year to be part of the Dad Brigade. He lives right around the corner, so it’s easy to come and help.

There were only four dads who showed up at Greystone this morning, but they were working quickly to spread pine straw around the school.

Jones said that, while he hated working with pine straw growing up, he gets a lot of satisfaction in helping to make sure the children in his community have a nice-looking place to go to school.

At Spain Park High School, about a dozen volunteers showed up strictly for the Dad Brigade, but 21 parents and four students who showed up for a Spain Park Gridiron Club cleanup day joined in to help the Dad Brigade volunteers put pine straw around the school as well.

The Gridiron Club also trimmed low-lying branches and brush amid the trees near the football practice field, pressure washed around the Jaguar Stadium ticket gate and visitors’ locker room, removed old banners from fences, cleaned stadium bathrooms and the stands, and removed old aluminum track edging that had been lying beside the track for several years, club President Blake Kendrick said.

Shane Eaker, the Dad Brigade captain for Spain Park High and Berry Middle School, also made sure fresh mulch was put out around a memorial for Spain Park students who had died at an early age.

Across town at Simmons Middle School, new Principal Walter Womack joined more than a dozen volunteers in cleaning up at his school.

This is the eighth year for the Hoover City Dad Brigade.