COSBY, Tenn. — Students at Cosby Elementary School are loving their new multi-sport court and outdoor pavilion, recently installed at the K-8 school.
The additions are thanks to Lowe's, HGTV, and Scott Jenkins, a special education teacher at the school.
Scott is not looking forward to his national TV debut.
"I'm a little nervous about that just to be honest," he said.
But it's worth it to help the people he loves.
Scott has taught at Cosby Elementary for nine years. He and the school were chosen to be featured in an episode of HGTV's new limited series called "Build it Forward."
The network partnered with Lowe's, which has given out community impact grants in 100 cities across the country.
Lowe's brought in the multi-sport court and pavilion, which Scott said were needed for the older students at the school.
He told the hosts of "Build it Forward" that there's no park or open community space for the kids within 10 miles of the school, so the new outdoor space on campus is a blessing.
"We just needed something for our older students, and to get that multi-sport court I mean, that gives them basketball, volleyball, several different things they can play there," said Scott.
HGTV also redid Scott's unfinished basement, making his smaller home bigger after he had to rebuild from a fire.
"Our basement, we had one bedroom, one bath down there, and the rest of it was completely unfinished. They came in and remodeled the bedroom and the bathroom, made the bathroom larger, and put in a like a living area with a nice TV," said Scott.
It's totally transformed the space into a hang-out area for the family and a modern bedroom for his two daughters.
Scott said it was about a six-month process to be on "Build it Forward."
COVID outbreaks and power outages from snowstorms slowed things down, but now his family and his school are benefitting from the mission of this show.
"For a long time, it was very surreal. It was like, you know, is this really happening? And then when we finally got to see it, it was like, man, this is awesome," he said.
As for Scott, he'll keep teaching, and use these new resources to help his family and his students.
"I'm gonna keep doing what I do here at the school and trying to help these kids and hopefully make a little bit of an impact," he said.
Scott's episode of "Build it Forward" airs at 6 p.m. on April 9 on HGTV.