Burlington, which recently opened back up in West Ashley, makes $5,000 donation to Stono Park Elementary
from Staff Reports
For more than 30 years, Burlington Coat Factory was a fixture in the Ashley Landing Shopping Center on Sam Rittenberg Boulevard, until that store closed several years back. However, last month, the national discount retailer, now rebranded simply Burlington, reopened in West Ashley at a new location in the St. Andrew’s Shopping Center, located at 975 Savannah Hwy. in the 37,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by Stein Mart. The store celebrated its grand opening on Friday, Nov. 5 with a ribbon cutting event along with City of Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg and City Councilman Ross Appel, and representatives from the Charleston County School District.
At the grand opening store managers presented nearby Stono Park Elementary with a $5,000 check as part of its partnership with the national non-profit organization AdoptAClassroom.org.
“We are grateful for this opportunity that Burlington is giving us, but more importantly we hope that this is the start of a partnership,” said Stono Park Principal Kimberly Richards. “We are just around the corner and we really look to those community partners to help support our students and our teachers so that we can continue doing an excellent job.”
CCSD Board of Trustees Chair Rev. Dr. Eric Mack shared Richards appreciation. “I’m super excited that a major chain organization has come within our community here in West Ashley to service our community has also partnered with our schools within the district in which we serve,” he said at the event. “And they have gone above and beyond by engaging with adopting a classroom that has been very exciting and supportive of our teachers because this type of contribution they have made to us in the amount of $5,000 towards Stono Park Elementary School, really excites our teachers and staff because it gives them added supplies that they can use to help engage their learning environment for our students.”
Crystal Adewale, a 4th grade teacher at Stono Park, was also on hand for the event and spoke about what donations from community partners means to teachers in the community. “One of our greatest investments that we can make in our society is to our children so to learn that Burlington has made such an investment to the greatest resource we have, words can’t describe how appreciative we are.”
