Fairfax Elementary Receives Grand Prize Check

The students of Fairfax Elementary School are grand champions.

The school won the $20,000 grand prize in the Big Lots Lots2Give competition, and was presented its check Wednesday at the Big Lots in Beachwood.

The contest involved each school creating a video of their school and what their needs are. The video produced by Fairfax received the most votes out of more than 180 contestant schools.

The plan is to use the money to build an adaptive play structure that all kids, regardless of any disabilities, can play on together.

Fairfax PTA co-president Leslie Kaplansky said that Fairfax is a special community.

"We all believed we could win this thing," she said. "What we had that no one else in the contest had was the very special community of Cleveland heights supporting us along the way."

Principal Andrett Calloway accepted the check for the school. She thanked parents and the entire community for their hard work getting the word out about the contest.

"I was waiting for someone to jump out of the bushes and tell me that wasn't true," she said. "But that didn't happen so here we are today."

Big Lots CEO David Campisi reminded Fairfax students to work hard in school. To help, Big Lots donated bins full of school supplies for Fairfax students.

He said he hopes the supplies will help the students complete their homework, even if they don't want to.

"No more excuses, right kids?" Campisi joked.