Wonderful thing money... especially when it is a grant for your elementary school to help beautification.... That is what happened last year when then PTA vice president Gretchen Crichton applied for the Lowe's Toolbox for Education Grant and received $4,000 towards construction a outside learning location with a gazebo.... Throw in support from the "Loving Our School Campaign" and the Dad's Club and here we sit on a virtual pile of money (the pile's size is relative- this is a public school after all).
Amazing thing timing.... Our school lost several of it's long serving teachers last year and what a better way to honor their years of devotion to our school but to dedicate the "garden" to them.
Terrific thing volunteers...Ideas of putting a gazebo between the two east wings of the building or maybe in front of the school were thrown about but after a long car ride full of committed PTA moms on the way to the PTA conference in Austin all that was thrown out under the auspices of what does DeGolyer need. What will the teachers use? Where are the kids? What can we really do to make a difference? How best to honor the teachers that recently retired? The location was changed to an area the kids pass by on their way to the playground full of sun and an abandoned grassy mess. It has the advantage of being next to the vegetable garden (more on that later) as well and being some place the kids can access everyday. Moms should not really be allowed to be in a car that long together, the wheels in their brain spin as fast as those on the pavement. What we are really blessed with is a flock of committed parents who we know we can tap into to get this project done- Armed with a little money and all the volunteer talent we were feeling unstoppable.
And then there we were- A location, some money, a school full of students, teachers to serve and honor not to mention a cast of amazing volunteers who are not to be underestimated... Now what?
Get the kids back in school and start dreaming, asking questions and designing. Questions were being thrown about that ranged from what is the origin of 'garden' to what is the grade of the slope, what plants will require the least amount of maintenance and have the most variety of texture, color size to excite the kids imagination. We looked at best practices from lots of different websites such as...
http://www.citysprouts.org/
http://www.citysprouts.org/
We spoke with teachers, the principal and other parents about what they want, dream of, think….
We sat with lots of images, ideas and dreams right next to the reality of the situation-
We have a time constraint (we have to fulfill the grant by the spring.) We are doing this with volunteer labor. We are in Texas and growing anything poses a challenge. This is a public place that we want to encourage kids to enjoy but kids also can be as destructive as a herd of cattle. School gardens tend to die out after the first generation of parents “graduate”- How do we make something that can be sustainable? How do we implement this without losing steam and keeping our own sanity? What design ignites the imagination of the kids, works with the architecture of the building and is so user friendly it draws you in?
The drawings began- and more meetings- with parent volunteers who have landscaping expertise, project management backgrounds and design skills. We also met with out principal and the director of DISD grounds, Mr. Coy Fraiser. Of course our principal Dr. Alecia Cobb is on board and is very encouraging. However, when you think of a big school district such as ours you immediately think of the red tape and bureaucracy to get anything done and then you meet someone like Coy Fraiser and that is all thrown out the window. He was such a great support and help. We gave him our pitch and instead of being aloof and wishing us luck or even worse shutting us down, he offered pointers, vendors and even to clear the site for us! This was such an amazing help since clearing the site was going to eat up a lot of our “budget” in volunteers. He answers emails right away and could not be more helpful... Having a contact you can trust takes such a weight off your shoulders. We know this garden would happen but it will go all the more smoothly because of Mr. Fraiser.
So now we are set up with a design, approval from the district and a core team of volunteers that are leading the charge. What is so great about the “core” is that each one possesses a skill set that compliments the rest and each one is committed to the project's ideals. We have one person heading up budgeting and volunteers, one heading up the overall design, a hardscape contractor and a landscape/ plant expert. We also have a marketing expert working to get the word out to the community about our effort. Now let's be honest- you can have less people to “plan” this thing but having a group fuels each person with more ideas, encouragement as well as not leaving one feeling overwhelmed.
So here we go- stay tuned for updates and more pictures of the progress. Next post- all about the design.
Looks fabulous! Love the location! I completely believe that if DeGolyer parents set their minds to something....anything can be achieved! This wonderful school can only keep getting better with parents like y'all!
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