Coeur Group brings locker program to Borah students

COEUR d'ALENE - On the heels of sweat and labor comes a pretty penny - and all for the kids.

After spending spring break building new lockers inside Borah Elementary School, the Coeur Group decided to fill 'em up, too.

Coats, hats, gloves, socks, you name it - it's all going inside the wooden lockers that just went up.

Actually, it's up to the school to buy the items, but the volunteer group of young professionals, teamed up with the Excel Foundation that raised $2,000 for the elementary school to begin stacking the shelves.

"It will go a long way," said Rebecca Murphy, school counselor, who accepted the donation this week. "I'm already thinking in my mind, making a list."

The Locker Program is the flagship project for The Coeur Group, a crew of young professionals which donates time and resources into the community.

When the lockers are filled with clothes and supplies, kids can take what they need. It's the fifth school the group has helped, and first elementary school. Eighty percent of Borah students are on free or reduced lunch.

"We see it," Murphy said of kids' needs for some things other kids or parents may take for granted. "The kids with their feet poking out of their shoes, kids with clothes that don't fit ..."

Now if clothes don't fit or are ruined, they can go to a locker for replacements. Murphy said the school was pleased to be the first elementary school chosen.

Coeur Group member Jimmy McAndrews said the team's goal is to fill one or two locker programs a year. It raises money for the program by fundraising, and when it comes time to build the lockers, the guys donate their own hands, backs and sweat - with the help of a professional, of course, Matt Anderson of Tapley Cabinets. The $2,000 donation this week to Borah was its most successful one yet.

"Thank you so much," she said, showing off the new lockers Thursday. "It's really going to help out with our students."