Archibald Rutledge Academy - Fathom Yearbook (McClellanville, SC)

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Masterpiece By Many Hands The Gym (Cont’d) shell of a building swarmed with volunteers hammering nails, sawing boards for bleachers, assembling light fixtures, installing gas piping and heaters, putting up conduits for electricity, sweeping up the construction litter and feeding the crews working through lunch. All this while the little ones ran through the embryonic gym shooting imaginary basketballs at the hoopless backboards. Anticipation grew as the tile arrived and the floor started taking shape. Students buzzed about the school in a frenzy of cleaning up and tried their hands at laying tile during recess. With crossed fingers, a sigh of relief and a swelling of pride the first game was held January 28th before a large crowd. Work is already underway to complete the kitchen facilities, dressing rooms, coaches room, library, four classrooms and stage. The potential for two additional classrooms is available at the stage end of the gym. Supervising, measuring, hammering, leveling, sanding, sweeping, and sawing. Laying the floor

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Reaching For The Sky The Gym (Cont’d) Reaching for the sky of gifts, from $10 to rather substantial ones. Rutledge Leland joined the group and a consensus was reached that if a gym was to be built at all, work should begin at once. With ten families pledging $1000 each and co-signing a note for the balance, groundbreaking quickly followed. This fund raising effort, along with the receipt of several generously large gifts has been responsible for assuring the first step in a three phase program of construction. Bee hive of activity Closing in on completion Early preparation work was done by volunteers, including the basketball players. With the help of David Marcinak and his earth moving equipment, the septic system was moved and rough clearing was accomplished. Soon the foundation was dug and the slab was poured. Work stopped for a month while the slab cured. Excitement ran high as the first shipment of steel girders arrived. Too heavy for the little wooden bridge, the delivery trucks off-loaded at the Baptist Church parking lot. The framework sections were then moved piece by piece, as needed, to the job site. The steel skeleton rose quickly, but a period of steady winter rains brought the drying-in to a standstill. At long last, the roof and sides were up. For nearly a month of weekends and afternoons, the

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Boys Break Into Win Column Jim with a hook Chris on a slam A full gym plus a full cigarbox equals a big smile Kneeling, Shawn White, Chris Bates, Pamma McClellan, Jim Scott, Chris White, Walter Wrixon, Kelly Morrison, Tim McConnell, Coach Tommy Duke