FAIRBORN — Fairborn Intermediate held the first of two “final tours” for former students and community members July 16.
The school, formerly known as Palmer-South Elementary, holds many memories for individuals who attended there as children, as well as parents and teachers.
Former students of all ages wandered through the halls, sharing memories and swapping stories with one another. Parents showed their children the many beautiful murals painted on classroom lockers. Pictures of the renderings for the new intermediate school were on display as well.
Superintendent Gene Lolli estimated about 200 people came through to visit in the first hour of the event on Thursday.
At the very end of the hallway, on the Dellwood Street side of the building, sits Room 10. In this room, Debra Hall served as a teacher’s aide for preschool and kindergarten for eight years beginning in 1992.
“There’s a lot of great memories,” she said, laughing. “I had a great time here.”
Kelli Hall-Medina, a first grade teacher in Huber Heights, attended Kindergarten in the same room in 1987. Once a week, she said, one of the mothers would wheel in a computer, for what they called Computer Day.
“It was one of those huge 1987 computers with green letters, and throughout the day, we would have 10 minutes of computer time in the hallway,” she said. “It was the first time I had ever seen a computer.”
For every sweet story, there is an impactful one as well. On Sept. 11, 2001, Hall remembers being at work at Fairborn Intermediate when she received news that the Twin Towers were hit.
“They came over the intercom system and told us there was a problem,” she said. “The teachers went down to the office and they told them what was happening and that people were coming to get their children. The office called [the children’s] names and we’d walk them to the door.”
The sheer volume of life experience that happened inside the walls of Fairborn Intermediate is no small thing. Lolli spoke to many community members on their way in the building, and most seemed to have come to express feelings of nostalgia.
“It’s a mix of sadness, of reminiscing. It’s been very positive, a lot of people are very sentimental,” he said. “They’re sad to see it go, but they’re very excited about the pictures of the new Intermediate. We’re very excited to start the next step in this process, and two years from now our kids will be in another state-of-the-art facility.”
The second walk-through event is scheduled for Saturday, July 18 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.