Martin Drayton, Cypress Creek High School principal, and Luis Alvarado, store manager of Office Depot’s Tomball Parkway location, hold commemorative Adopt-a-School certificates and pose with Office Depot, CFISD and school representatives after the campus and community partner announced on Aug. 24 they entered into an adoption partnership.
By Sebastian Mar, Cypress Creek HS
Sept. 5, 2023—Representatives from Office Depot visited the staff at Cypress Creek High School on Aug. 24 to officially announce their Adopt-a-School partnership with the campus.
CFISD’s Adopt-a-School program pairs schools with community organizations and business partners to utilize resources of the community to strengthen and enrich the quality of education for students.
The partnership between Cypress Creek and Office Depot’s Tomball Parkway location comes as the 2023-2024 school year gets underway. Martin Drayton, first-year Cypress Creek principal, highlighted the connection between local schools and their community and business partners.
Martin Drayton, Cypress Creek High School principal, signs an Adopt-a-School partnership agreement after the campus announced its official partnership with Office Depot’s Tomball Parkway location on Aug. 24.
“We’re part of the community,” Drayton said. “It takes a village to raise a child and we are part of that village.”
Helping bridge together Cypress Creek and Office Depot was Roanna Smith, who serves as the school’s diagnostician secretary. She also works part-time Office Depot and advocated for the business partner to form a relationship with Cypress Creek.
“This shows that the community really does care,” Smith said.
Prior to the formal adoption, Dawn Tryon, CFISD director of community engagement, presented Luis Alvarado, Office Depot manager, with a certificate of appreciation for a donation of school supplies. In addition to showing his gratitude to the Cypress Creek staff, Alvarado said being a partner with the school is personal as he lives just minutes from the campus.
“With Office Depot, caring is one of our 5C principles,” Alvarado said. “For us, we’re always reaching out into the community and seeing how we can help out. COVID-19 did a number on all of us, so now we’re reaching out to the schools. Then we’ll reach out to the small businesses in our neighborhood. In my case, this is my neighborhood so I’m going to do whatever I can to help out everyone around us.”
Luis Alvarado, store manager of Office Depot’s Tomball Parkway location, receives a certificate of appreciation from Dawn Tryon, CFISD director of community engagement. The business partner was honored for a donation of school supplies to Cypress Creek High School before officially entering into an Adopt-a-School partnership.
For more information on the Adopt-a-School program, contact Dawn Tryon, CFISD director of community engagement, at 281-894-3950 or dawn.tryon@cfisd.net.
