GULF SHORES, AL — Jason Stephenson was admiring landscaping work he and other Dolphin Dads completed at the entrance of Gulf Shores Elementary School.

One of the kids filtering out to the playground also wanted an up close and personal look at the new plants.

“This student pulled out some of our monkey grass,” Stephenson said. “I saw him putting it back in the ground and I asked the teacher what happened. He just walked up and pulled it out of the ground. He had to be third grade or second grade.”

Just a small set back, however, in the good works by the Dolphin Dads volunteer work at the school. The idea started out small, but as a first project was completed before school started, Stephenson and others felt they were unto something.

With Baldwin County struggling financially to serve an ever-growing student population and taxpayers who continue to shy away from taxes to support the growth, the Dolphin Dads are stepping up.

Spurred on, initially, by a Dolphin mom, Jen Stephenson.

“My wife is the president of the GSPP or Gulf Shores Parent Partnership,” Stephenson said. “She was up there just before school started and just seeing the disrepair of the landscape and some of the picnic benches she called and said something’s got to get done.

“I had three guys join me that day, we brought a landscaping crew and got all the grounds cut, fixed the picnic tables, repaired a fence. Just everything to make it safe for the kids. Once that started we were like, we’re going to do this anyhow.”

On the past two Sunday mornings Dolphin Dads have been on campus sprucing up the entrance at the elementary school.

“The Dolphin Dad’s Program is exceptional,” Principal Amy Hiller said. “It has grown into a group of Dads, grandfathers, uncles and friends that have worked to make repairs and beautify our campus. Thus far they have put together a storage building, repaired picnic tables and structures, made safety improvements, corrected drainage, placed walkways and brought in vegetation and mulch to beautify our school.”

The current project is landscaping improvements for the school’s entrance.

“We’re a month or two into it and it seems we’ve gotten a good foundation of people and a good foundation of projects going,” Stephenson said. “This one’s big, this is making a significant impact.

“As nice the high school looks and as nice as the middle school looks, the first thing they see is the elementary school. We want to make it as presentable as possible.”

Help has been coming from other quarters as well, not just dads, Stephenson said. Public Works Director Mark Acreman has helped with materials and students at the Environmental Science and Zoology Academy from Gulf Shores are lending a hand as well, led by instructor Wil Tuggle.

“Mr. Tuggle has been phenomenal,” Stephenson said. “We’ve met with him and he’s given us access to tools and information. What he agreed to do, which is going to be really good, is his classes are going to start taking care of the watering. He’s agreed to have that as one of their projects. And they are going to do some annuals to give it a little bit more color.”

But that’s been the attitude of a lot of supporters, Stephenson said. Now it’s a matter of working through what is pretty much a “honey-do” solicited and supplied by the teachers.

“We’re not having to look for them,” Stephenson said. “They are coming. We judge them on this: Do we have money and do we have time? We normally have time, but the materials and money aspect of it is more.

“Some local businesses have told us they would help us out with materials. If we can get them to do that, we can do a lot more. That’s what we are, labor. Hopefully we’ll get some donations financially or through materials so that we can continue doing more.”