A Yamaha Special Delivery Provides Inclusion and Accessibility for Bass Middle Students

A large public school campus can be intimidating, especially for those young people who have issues with mobility due to an injury or a permanent disability. For a special group of students at Blake Bass Middle School, inclusion and accessibility to all parts of the campus was proving difficult due to walking distances. But with help from Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation, Bass Middle School in Newnan now has a way to meet the needs of students who need a hand getting around campus.

Dr. Cindy Bennett, the school’s principal, remembered how Yamaha helped her former school and others in the Coweta County school district. With that in mind, she reached out in the spring of 2022 to the company to request the donation of a gas-powered golf car.

“Our school would greatly benefit from this donation as we have multiple students who experience difficulty in walking long distances. The use of a golf car would allow our staff to transport these students to various areas around our school such as the bus circle, the football field, the track, and to the other side of our campus where we are planning to add an outdoor classroom,” she wrote in her petition to Yamaha. “In addition, our special needs class, which consists of six students, is committed to keeping the area around our school marquee free of debris and trash. The marquee is not within walking distance for these students, so the golf car would allow the teacher to transport the students to the marquee to complete a ‘job’ that they love to do for our school.”

Yamaha heard her and has been able to fulfill her wish. A vehicle recently became available through Yamaha’s Golf Cars division and Yamaha negotiated special funding at the school district level so that it did not impact the Bass’ limited budget. A refurbished golf car with six seats was delivered, with a few additional items thrown in to help the students. Some of the enhancements that were made include a better sunroof, windshield, upgraded seats, and custom graphic package.

“Yamaha is just so responsive and really wants to go out of their way to help students to find out what the needs are and to do what they can to the best of their ability to ensure that students have what they need,” Bennett said. “We want a school of innovation that produces well-rounded students who truly know that we don’t want to see any type of limits. We want students to reach for the stars and fulfill, whatever it is, their destiny here at Blake Bass Middle School.”

“We are so thankful to be able to have these partnerships within the community and to know that there are companies out there, specifically Yamaha, who will work with us and help us meet those needs no matter what the circumstances are.”

Bob Brown, VP of Finance and Operations Support at Yamaha agrees. “We are proud to support the schools in our community. Over 55% of our team members live in Coweta County and many of us have students in

Coweta County schools. Today’s students are our future community leaders, Yamaha customers, and Yamaha team members and it is so important to support our schools in developing our children to be prepared for success. We hope that by supplying this golf car, students can continue to reach for their stars without limitation.”

Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation of America designs and assembles WaveRunners, ATVs, Side by Sides, and Golf Cars at the Newnan plant. One of Coweta County’s largest private employers, Yamaha is currently expanding the team, hiring additional contract and direct hire employees. Most jobs with Yamaha start Contract at $18 per hour and are eligible to be full hires in 30 days. Details are at yamahajobs.com

Did You Know?

• 61% of low-income families do not have a single piece of age-appropriate reading material in their home?

• 1/3rd of Georgia’s children start school unprepared to learn?

• 75% of Georgia’s students who are poor readers in the third grade will remain poor readers in high school?

How Do Books Help?

The more words a child hears, the larger the child’s vocabulary and the larger the child’s vocabulary, the more likely the child will be a proficient reader. However, in order to read with a child, books must be in the home.

“Working at Yamaha has given me an awesome career trajectory. My job has given me financial stability, which has enabled me to have two kids in college right now.”

– Antoine H. Welding Supervisor