Grandparents have lunch at Mae Stevens, other CCISD campuses

By Sean Haney

Cove Leader-Press

On Monday, Mae Stevens Early Learning Academy held their annual Grandparents Day lunch, as did a number of elementary schools in CCISD.

Altogether, 1,332 grandparents attended the lunch at the respective schools to celebrate Grandparents Day.  Mae Stevens Early Learning Academy had 205, Hettie Halstead Elementary 96, Martin Walker Elementary 165, Fairview/Miss Jewell Elementary 171, House Creek Elementary 233, Williams/Ledger Elementary 183, and Clements/Parsons Elementary 279.

With there being so many kids at Mae Stevens Early Learning Academy (400-500 kids) the Grandparents Day lunch got split into two days, with half on Friday and the other half on Monday.

For cafeteria manager Brittany Fraser who attended Mae Stevens when it was an elementary campus, and then graduated from Copperas Cove High School in 2018, this was her first Grandparents Day at Mae Stevens to prepare the lunch.

“We had grandparents tell us ahead of time if they were going to be eating within the cafeteria, and if they were, then we went ahead and prepared all the food for the grandparents to eat along with their students to eat,” said Fraser. “But, a lot of grandparents actually want to bring special meals for their students. It was really nice to see them bring outside food to bring in for their kids to enjoy. But we just prep with making sure everybody is there to eat.”

She said that she heard a lot more people were excited to show up on Monday, so that they could be a part of their kids’ day too.

“A lot of kids loved seeing their moms or dads show up and their grandparents with them. It was really nice to see.”

Keesha Wright who was at Mae Stevens with her grandchild Amari Purvis said, “It is important for him to know that we are going to be there for everything. No matter if it is grandparents day, whatever day it is, we’re going to be here for him, and he’s got the level of support from all his grandparents.”

Wright went on to say that she loves how the schools are doing for her grandchildren especially after COVID shut everything down and changed a lot of things for her and her family. After attending Mae Stevens lunch, Wright then went on to attend her 4th grade granddaughter’s lunch at Williams/Ledger Elementary.