Drawing from Joey Feek‘s legacy and 3-year-old daughter Indy‘s learning journey, Rory Feek was inspired to construct a one-room schoolhouse on the family’s rural Tennessee homestead.
“Fifty or more people… friends, family, neighbors, and a lot of folks from the cowboy church that meets in our barn on Sundays…, descended on our parking lot at 7 am this past Saturday morning with hammers and saws, hamburgers and hotdogs and hearts full of love. They were here to help build something big for someone little,” Rory shared via his This Life I Live blog.
Rory’s vision is to host several children— including Indy— and allow them to learn life skills in a unique ‘farm school’ setting. The classroom itself will then shift to fit the children’s needs as they mature. The singer-songwriter hopes to open the school in January.
“Besides the schoolroom, the kids will have a playground and their own garden that they can plant and take care of and a henhouse/barn with chickens and other animals to raise and woods to build a birdwatching hut and make trails that the teachers can take them for walks in. And across the pasture, we have horses that they can care for and learn to ride and a concert hall where they can learn about music and put productions on on the stage. On rainy days the concert hall can be their gym to play in,” Rory mused about his big plans for the place.
Besides being a beacon of education, Rory hopes that the schoolhouse becomes a big blessing for Indy and the children who learn there. To construct the building, Rory called upon the help of his neighbors— and they showed up in full force.
“We could have just hired some folks to come build the schoolhouse. People who do it for a living and it that would fine. Probably easier in some ways. Be I believe that ‘how you do something’ is almost as important as ‘what you do’. And since Joey and I and our older girls are big fans of the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, we thought we’d open it up to the community. Make it something that isn’t just a beautiful moment and memory for us, but for others too. And it was. It really was. I got to know a lot of folks I didn’t know and they got to know each other better too,” he reflected.
Watch the community in action below!
What a beautiful effort to take on! We’re sure Indy and her little friends will get years of enjoyment out of this one-room schoolhouse.
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