Maplesville High School teacher Pam Ousley and her interior design class can take pride in knowing they played a part in preparing the Foshee house grounds for the town’s Heritage Day visitors Saturday.

Ousley, a Family and Consumer Science teacher, and 15 juniors and seniors in her I.D. class elected to help clean around the house Wednesday afternoon as a community service project for the class.

The cleanup also counts toward the students’ annual service activities in FCCLA (Future Career and Community Leaders of America). Ousley is the FCCLA sponsor at MHS.

“Every class chooses a community service project for the semester, and we try to do one that is related to the area they’re studying,” Ousley said. “This is an interior design class, so that’s my connection to the housing.”

Since the Foshee house is on the main thoroughfare running through town and will be visible to all who attend Heritage Day on Saturday, Ousley and her students thought dedicating an hour of their time and energy to sprucing up the exterior of the house would help the town in the final days before its annual street festival.

Street department superintendent Kenny Barrett said Ousley’s project proposal came as a welcome surprise to him considering he has only one employee to help him maintain the town’s roads and property.

Since Maplesville assumed ownership of the historic home from Ovid Merchant last March, the town and the Maplesville Historical Society are responsible for its upkeep.

Barrett said the daunting task of cleaning around the Foshee house—not to mention all other regular duties such as trash pickup and sidewalk cleaning—fell solely on his shoulders prior to Heritage Day last year.

As he supervised Wednesday’s cleanup, Barrett thanked Ousley for the extra assistance.

“This, here, is a tremendous help,” Barrett said.

Ousley and her students pulled up weeds, trimmed shrubs, raked and bagged leaves and swept the walkway and front steps.

They could not work on the interior of the house because repairs to the roof have not been completed, but Ousley said they would have if the timing had been right.

“Through this project, it’s all about getting students college and career ready,” she said. “The students give back to their community and actually experience some careers that would be housing-related. It will be good for them and good for the city as well.”

The class borrowed brooms and hedge clippers from the MHS agriscience department, and Barrett supplied plastic trash bags for leaves and litter.

“We love to help our community,” junior Candace Miskelley said.