HOUSTON — A south Houston school got an extreme makeover Saturday, and it was all done in just a few hours.
It took a few wheelbarrows, a couple of tarps and a lot of heart to turn the bleak backyard to a playground paradise all in just a few hours.
“This was all just open land," Burnett Elementary Principal Jae Lee said.
It was a morning of outpouring by 150 volunteers.
“The majority of them are my parents, my students' parents, and then friends and relatives," Lee said.
They had help from KaBOOM!, a national non-profit, and Rebuild Texas.
“To go and have this massive transformation in just six hours, just feels like I think a really big accomplishment," KaBOOM! Associate Project Manager Sam Buckley said.
What normally takes days, these superheroes finished in hours for a community who needs it more than most.
“Just very emotional as I watched and could not do anything about it," Lee said.
Lee said 87 percent of the homes around Burnett Elementary were hit by Harvey. That’s 87 percent of his students.
“KaBOOM! really tries to work with communities that deserve a playground, and this one really did in a lot of ways," Buckley said.
Lee said it’s these brand new structures that will give his students the recess they deserve.
“We understand how important it is to have unstructured play," Lee said. "P.E. is not unstructured play. That is structured play. Kids need unstructured play."