For anyone who ever wondered if those people who offer parking at their businesses and homes during the Florida Strawberry Festival make good money, the answer is ‘yes.’
Just ask the staff and students of Willis Peters Exceptional Center.
Every year, the students and staff of the school join forces with Wells Memorial Funeral Home, just down the street from the festival, and use the funeral home’s lot to park cars to raise some money to help improve lives.
“The students are very fortunate,” Rebecca Nance, an elementary teacher, said. “Everyone’s very dedicated to the students. It’s our only big fundraiser that we do each year. Wells doesn’t take a cut of the money. They donate every penny to the school.”
Nance knows firsthand what kind of impact this makes. She’s been working behind the scenes for years to make sure everything runs without a hitch and has seen every penny go to a good cause.
According to Wells director Verna McKelvin, the school has generated tens of thousands of dollars of revenue from the parking lot. Last year, Wells confirmed the school raised around $12,000.
The partnership officially began in 2008. Before then, it was just a one-family deal: a student lived behind Wells, and his father started opening up the yard for parking to raise money for teacher Phoebe Irby’s class. According to Nance, the neighbors soon caught wind of this and volunteered their properties for the cause. When McKelvin heard about it, she and the funeral home were happy to loan their empty lot at no charge.
“The lot’s empty during the festival, and I struggled to man it,” she said. “I thought it would be a great relationship.”
Students and staff from the school work in the lot at all times during the Strawberry Festival, and the students get a good work experience out of it in addition to the benefits they reap from the funds raised.
“They wave in cars, hand out cards, make change,” Nance said. “We like to get them involved with hands-on life skills and understand where the money comes from — what their time is going toward.”
Open Road Trailers also lends the school a helping hand, donating a trailer for the students and staff to store their equipment in during the festival.
Wells may not take a cut of the money, but the funeral home has been showered with cards from well-wishing students, staff and parents, and the kids even made a plaque one year as a thank-you — a plaque that the funeral home is proud to have on display.
As for the school, the money goes to help students of need in all areas. Everything from school supplies to winter coats are covered, and McKelvin said the school was also able to use some of the money to build a handicap-accessible playground.
With the way things have been going, Wells and Willis Peters don’t plan on splitting up any time soon.
“It looks like it’s going to continue to be a long relationship,” McKelvin said.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Willis Peters Exceptional Center, located at 2919 Nelson Ave., Dover, is a public exceptional school that serves students 3 to 22 who have intellectual disabilities. The school, which is right next to Dover Elementary, runs a PreK-12 program with a four-year transition program to help the older students adjust to life outside of school. It currently employs 50 staff members, and has 90 students.
For more information about the school, call (813) 757-9462.