How a school in the town of Paradise is coping without its school building
PARADISE, Calif. (KGO) -- The six months that have passed since the Camp Fire have given the town of Paradise, California, at least a small amount of time to begin to heal, and rebuild.
But, students from the town, the few that are left, are without buildings for schools.
RELATED: Rebuilding begins in Paradise 6 months after devastating Camp Fire
Few solutions were available but when a hardware store lease was offered by the hardware store company Lowe's, Paradise Intermediate School jumped at the chance.
From the outside the building looks like a generic store with no signage. The only evidence there are children nearby is a small, yellow-green "child at play" figure used to warn drivers to slow down, placed at the entrance of the store.
As you enter, the customer service counter is to the left in front of the registers. The sound of children laughing can be heard, instead of an announcement for a clean up in aisle four.
English is in one aisle, while math in another. The gym is in the gardening center. The library full of donated, clean and cataloged books, is just beyond register 4.
Greg Holman, who has taught science in Paradise for over 20 years says, "I always like to say, cause people ask what we're doing and we just like to say we're making a lot of lemonade. So, there's lots of lemonade, lots of lemonade to be made here."
None of the teachers complain about their situation, says Holman. Considering everything these families have gone through, they are just happy the students are there. The lesson of resilience travels both ways at this school.
