The Yellowjacket Foundation is looking for donations to help with a special project in memory of long-time Union High School guidance councilor Polly Gordon, who passed away earlier this year.
Gordon, whose service to Union Public School District spanned more than 50 years, will be remembered by many as an outspoken woman who loved Union and its students.
“She was pretty straightforward,” Superintendent Tyler Hansford said. “I think that’s what most people remember, her speaking her mind, but she was always about something like this.”
UPSD is in the process of removing three modular trailers from its campus, and when the conversation turned to what to put in their place, the decision was made to do something to commemorate the legacy of Polly Gordon in the district.
“What we’re thinking, I think, is a flat pad, either concrete or solid gravel surface, a perimeter, picnic tables and umbrellas,” Hansford said.
The picnic area would be located right outside the cafeteria doors and would be an ideal spot for older students to enjoy lunch out in the sun. It might even be a good spot to hold the occasional outdoor class.
Union High School guidance counselor Deanna Rush said this would be exactly the type of project Gordon would approve of.
“She would definitely approve of having the kids out there,” she said. “She was all about making the campus pretty too. She liked to worry about the flowers and the yard, that type of thing.”
With a plan in place, the Yellowjacket Foundation is leading the charge to raise funds to complete the Polly Gordon Memorial Terrace. Rush said the goal is to raise the bulk of the money by July 30 in order to get the project completed in time for students to enjoy outdoor lunches during the cooler fall months.
Donations to the project can be individually, by family or by class online at yellowjacketnation.org/donate, or by mailing a donation to P.O. Box 92, Union, MS 39365. If mailing a donation, Hanford said the Foundation asks “For Polly Gordon fund” be written in the memo line or on a note included with the payment to make sure the money is directed where it was intended to go.
