Pantex employees volunteer at CISD

By Carrie Helms, Clarendon Enterprise 

It only took three hours to make a difference.

Local BWXT Pantex employees Marvin Thompson and Wayne Hardin coordinated a project to give the Clarendon ISD bus barn and Ag building a fresh coat of paint and do a service for the community.

For the second year, Pantex employees all over the Panhandle took a day off to participate in the Pantex Day of Volunteering on Saturday, June 22.

“Last year we didn’t have time to set up a project in Clarendon,” Thompson said, “so I helped out on the project in Claude.”

This year, local employees wanted to do something closer to home that would benefit the community.

“When they first started organizing projects for the volunteer day, Marvin and Wayne asked us to come up with something that they could do to help,” CISD Superintendent Monty Hysinger said.

Hysinger told them that the bus barn was in need of repairs, so they submitted the plan to Pantex and got it approved.

“Our original intent was to paint the bus barn and if it rained we’d go inside and paint the Ag building,” Thompson said, “but we had enough people to do both.”

A crew of 22 people, including Pantex employees and their families, came out to help.

“They showed up early Saturday morning, had breakfast, and went right to work,” Hysinger said.

In about three hours the crew had painted all but the stripe around the bottom of the bus barn.

“The new Ag teacher was impressed,” Thompson said.  “He just couldn’t believe it.”

Pantex not only provided the volunteer labor, they paid the bill.

“They paid for all the paint and supplies, somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000,” Hysinger said. “They really helped us out a lot and we truly appreciate their efforts.”

The project initiated by BWXT was intended to give back to the community, but according to Thompson, it turned out to be a chance for the employees and their families to have some good clean fun.

“We all had a lot of fun and were able to see an accomplishment for all our work,” Thompson said.