John Essex principal Loretta McCoy was excited to hear about State Sen. Bobby Singleton’s visit on Wednesday to her school. She had been told that Singleton was bringing $5,000 to go towards a new school playground.

As it turned out, Singleton did not bring the check for $5,000. He brought a check for $10,000.

“This exceeds my expectations,” McCoy said. “I had thought it was going to be $5,000! I knew we would have to work a little bit to raise the money for the playground, but with this amount, you can look for it.

“Playground equipment is something that every school needs to have. We have child obesity in our homes, and the Centers for Disease Control has declared child obesity as a disease. In order for our children to be healthy, they need to be able to go out and have P.E. and to play, and this is just one of those areas that I can help with to make that happen.”

“About three years ago, I came here with Ms. McCoy, and I told the John Essex Alumni Association that I was going to adopt this school,” Singleton said. “I felt that there were some things that were not done at John Essex, and I wanted to make sure that they were brought up to par with technology and other things. We brought in the University of Alabama as a partner with them.”