Students of Mead Hall Episcopal School in Aiken, South Carolina will enjoy the school year playing on the Meredith Stapleton Playground.

 

Sunday, the playground was named in honor of Stapleton, the former Meredith Legg of Bridgeport, who passed away Feb. 24 after a four-year battle with cancer. When diagnosed with a rare form of melanoma, Stapleton was a senior at the University of South Carolina Aiken where she was a standout basketball player; establishing several school records and in 2012, being inducted into the USC-Aiken Athletic Hall of Fame. Prior to those athletic achievements, she excelled in the sport at Hopewell High School in Huntersville, North Carolina, where she was the very first inductee in the high school’s athletic hall of fame.

 

Stapleton not only played the game well, she shared her expertise with basketball enthusiasts of the younger generation.

 

“(Meredith) coached our middle school girls’ basketball team for several years and made quite an impact on the program and the girls – and really the local community,” said Katherine B. “Kitty” Gordon, head of Mead Hall Episcopal School.

 

The K-12 school presently has over 330 students enrolled. Each spring, the school hosts a Strawberry Festival. Among items in this year’s silent auction was naming rights to the children’s playground for the 2014-2015 school year.

 

“It turns out the man (Steve Gordy) is a relative of Meredith’s husband,” Gordon said. “He decided he’d like to name the playground in memory of Meredith. What a nice gesture!”

 

It’s also a gesture which fits nicely with the school’s mission – challenging students to pursue academic excellence, spiritual growth and moral integrity.

 

A sign is being made to reflect the new name of the playground, Gordon said.