Restoring the stars in McNairy

The room at McNairy Central High School currently houses cleaning supplies and old textbooks, but Allie Ray is on a mission to fill the room with stars again.

"I'm a go-getter, I'd like to better our school," Ray said. "It just seemed that some people aren't as excited as I am to learn, and I just want to see that excitement in somebody else."

Now a high school senior, Ray said she grew up visiting the school with her mother. She regularly noticed classroom C6, and thought she would have classes there.

When she reached high school, Ray learned that no classes were taught in the small, domed room.

As a junior, she asked Sarah Allison, a biology teacher, what the room was for — and learned it had been a planetarium, discontinued in the early 1990s.

"I was like 'Oh my goodness, no way,'" Ray said. "That just started the fire, and we're going to keep it going."

The planetarium was in use from 1969 until the early 1990s. Ray said it was technologically innovative, containing a projector that came in and out of the floor in an elevator shaft, reclining theater seats and a sound system.

Eventually the projector and the elevator shaft began to rust because of moisture in the ground, and the school sold off the rest of the equipment.

Now, the room is in need of seating, a projector, lights and a sound system.

For her senior project, Ray is working on grant writing. She decided to apply that project toward getting the money for the planetarium and is currently researching educational grants.

It's difficult to find grants for space science, Ray said, but she plans to succeed.

Ray has also sent donation letters to businesses around the school and started a GoFundMe page, which has raised nearly $3,000.

"Even if I don't get it fully a nice, nice facility, we could start out small and upgrade it as the years go on," Ray said.

Ray said she hopes space science classes will be taught in the room. She said she dreams of having chalkboards on the walls lit up by black lights, so white chalk will glow in the dark as constellations are projected onto the ceiling.

A new projector will not have to be kept underground and the stars and movies could be controlled by an iPad. Several of the school's science teachers are interested in astronomy, Ray said, and she herself wants to be a teacher.

Ray said the planetarium was initially used for an after school program to draw younger children to the high school.

While she hopes to have the money raised by April, she understands it may not happen in that timeframe.

"If not, that's OK," Ray said. "I'm paving the way for someone else to complete it."

Allison, now one of Ray's mentors for her senior project, said the school used to be a "showcase school," known for its state-of-the-art technology — like the planetarium.

"I think this is a step back toward being a showcase school," Allison said. "I think as determined as Allie is and as much support as we have from the community, it's inevitable that it's going to happen."

Reach Katherine at (731) 425-9748. Follow her on Twitter: @kathsburgess