[img]454|left|||no_popup[/img] It was just a few days past the first day of spring, and the students of the School District’s Office of Child Development had plenty to celebrate.
The students joined District representatives in cutting the ribbon to their new greenhouse – a project that stemmed from the mind of parent Dennis Fan and blossomed into a school-wide campaign to go green.
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Students get their first look at the pre-school campus’s new greenhouse.
Photos by Geoff Maleman
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At left are the school braintrust, Supt. Myrna Rivera Coté, School Board President Jessica Beagles-Roos, Dennis Fan, Board member Scott Zeidman and school director Audrey Jones.
Parents organized fundraisers. Experts helped in plant selection. Volunteers helped with the construction of the greenhouse. In the end, the Office of Child Development students have a new appreciation for both the environment and for what can happen when the community comes together to make a project a reality.
The $5,000 greenhouse, built on a small, unused section of the preschool campus will enable the students to grow plants, flowers, vegetables and herbs while studying the lifecycle of plants and learning about basic botany.
“As an administrator, I am amazed at how such a small idea has brought so many people together around a common goal,” said Audrey Jones, the director of the Office.
The Greenhouse Project helps accentuate what is possible when we approach challenges as a unified entity – the community. Together we can transform our community and empower our children to realize their potential and live the life they love!”
Mr. Fan, whose daughter attends the school, said he wanted to give students an opportunity to learn about gardening and help inspire in them a love for the earth and the environment, while having fun all along.
“Let’s be a part of our children’s learning ground, giving life to a project that will allow us as adult’s to be role models inspiring children and showing them what we can do when we are willing to work together,” he said.
