A. Amy Osteen

“This school year I've had the opportunity to work with students to plant, grow, and cook what they grew. Some of our students do job training at a local nursery. Due to these experiences we have started an outdoors club that has a focus on gardening. This will benefit our students in many ways including: becoming more food secure through gardening and learning to enjoy nature in new ways. We built a planter box that gives gardening access to students in wheelchairs. The students are learning to work together and make connections in our community. The outdoor club provides students leadership roles and allows them input on what THEY want to accomplish. Grant money will be used to build more wheelchair accessible planting boxes, buy soil/fertilizer, plants, bird feeders and bird seed and a bench for our non-mobile students to enjoy the garden, bird watch and identify birds. One of our students passed away this school year and we planted a tree in her memory. We would like to use some of the funds to put bricks around the tree and add a small plaque in her honor. The goal is to have a fully functioning garden that allows access to people with disabilities and a bird watching observation area.”