Thursday, May 17, 2012
Photo
East High School students, from left, Angel Cosme, Breona Taylor and LeA’Jaha Day listen as Meagan Tehua of Goodness Grows talks about what’s included in one of the beds in the East High School Panthers Garden, a garden in the courtyard of East High School. The project was a joint effort among the school, Northeast Homeowners Association and Concerned Citizens Association and several partner individuals and organizations.
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
East High School junior JazAvona Pruitt watered the plants that will become the school’s courtyard garden faith-fully each day.
“I like plants,” said the special-education student and member of the school’s Panthers Garden Club.
Ground was broken Wednesday for the garden, a collaboration of the school and Northeast Homeowners Association & Concerned Citizens Association.
Glenda House, garden coordinator and NHCCA president, said the organization polled its membership last year and determined that members wanted to become more involved with city school students.
“We found out that there was supposed to be landscaping here, but they ran out of money,” House said.
The garden club idea was born. NHCCA members met with Holly Seimetz, East principal, about a garden club, and the project got moving. East faculty were divided into two groups, one for grants and fundraising and one for curriculum for the garden project.
Students did much of the work.
“This was all the kids’ doing,” House said. “They decided what they wanted to grow and what they wanted the garden to look like.”
The East Panthers Garden Club received a $5,000 Toolbox for Education grant from Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation to help with the project. The school was one of more than 585 schools or parent organizations awarded one of the grants which are for parent-initiated school-improvement projects that benefit kindergarten through 12th-grade students.
The garden will feature a butterfly section as well as roses, daisies, peppers, tomatoes, corn and watermelon, said club members Kalynn Agosto and Lisi Flores.
“We learned about composting,” Lisi said, pointing to a compost bin in the garden. “We made our own soil.”
Kalynn graduates next month but says she’ll return to the school next year to see how the garden grows.
Students worked on the garden both during and after school.
Landscaper Anthony J. Billet designed the garden based on how the students want it to look.
The project involved the efforts of several other organizations and individuals: the Tod Foundation, Youngstown Litter Control and Recycling, Youngstown Cityscape, Seimetz, Goodness Grows, Ohio State University Extension Mahoning County, Earthscape Software Design, Phillip Warren, Chris Altier of CBS Topsoil and Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative.
“At this time next year, you’ll probably see hummingbirds and butterflies in the garden,” Billet said.