Christmas Lights at the Dudley School First Time in Decades

The Dudley School is celebrating Christmas with electricity turned back on after no power for decades. Christmas decorations are visible and hanging thanks to the leadership of Sharon McDonald, Joe and Debra Joe Lewandowski and volunteers along with KRAZY KALH Radio staff to help bring the spirit of Christmas to this old historic building in the midst of rehabilitation.

The original building opened in 1901, it was expanded to 4 rooms in 1914. It feel into disrepair and was a derelict property until a few years ago when the Tularosa Basin History Society and the City of Alamogordo created an ambitious plan and a private public partnership to rehab the building.

The plan in progress is to make it into Community Center with storyboards telling its history and the history of segregation from the perspective of students, teachers and community members that traveled throughout the the doors as a testament to history.

District 5 City Commissioner Sharon McDonald has championed this project as a project of community pride for the historic Chihuahuita neighborhood. 

From a derelict property that hosted the homeless and was a public safety risk…

The Dudley School pre rehabilitation

…to a property evolving in rehabilitation and decorated for Christmas for the first time in decades…

Dudley with the facelift and Christmas Decorations

…the community is working hard to make this property a reality and an example of community pride…

Volunteers decorate the Dudley for some holiday cheer!

Sharon McDonald all samples and full of holiday cheer at the Dudley School rehabilitation project

The project is ongoing and needs volunteers this weekend to assist with more hand on work. 

The contractors have completed their work, so volunteers are going back inside the building this weekend. 

So, the working team of volunteers and the Tularosa Basin Historic Society is needing all the help it can get.

Volunteers are needed and will be working on Friday the 8th and Saturday the 9th, starting at 8:00 AM to noon. The task will be cleaning the interior, replacing windowpanes, cleaning the windows that are in good shape, installing drywall in some walls. And other minor items. So please come out and help, there will be something for all kinds of volunteers and skill sets. 

KRAZY KALH Radio is one of many supporting groups championing this ambitious project! If you haven't been by lately, take a ride in the evening between 6:00 PM and 10:00 PM by the Dudley School to see the Christmas lights that are installed and the progress to the building to date. Grand opening will be coming in 2024! 

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