Love of Landscaping- connecting students & nature

Want to join us  in making a difference? We are raising money to benefit North Windy Ridge PTO, and any donation will help make an impact.   We serve over 700 students in the 5th and 6th grade and have a wonderful opportunity to use our campus to foster an awareness of gardening and landscaping to kids at an impressionable age.  Why do we have to fund raise when it seems the County should have budget for grounds work??  The County pays for maintenance of the grounds, mowing and some pruning, but not beautification and educational gardening projects. This is where we (PTO volunteers) come in!

 We have the second largest campus in the Buncombe County school system and only two custodians in charge of extensive grounds work. Our campus full of landscaping  that has been neglected over the years, many shrubs and trees now greatly oversized. Some years ago, a fountain was installed beside the main walkway entrance into the building. Last year, a student’s parent  who is in the landscaping business generously donated his time and his crew to give our fountain an overhaul, and the results are incredible. Students and visitors to our campus can now hear the soothing sound of the fountain as they approach the front doors and actually see the stonework,  lilypads, and  koi as a result of the  overgrowth being pruned back.   As the crew and volunteers worked, we heard several visitors comment that they were unaware there even was a fountain there to begin with!

We now need to remove a hedge of Juniper that has grown so tall that it blocks site lines for our front office staff. They cannot see approaching cars or visitors  until they are 20 yards from the front door. Removal of this hedge will greatly improve school safety, but it will cost $1000,  so this project has catalyzed this go fund me effort. The additional requested amount of money is for the purchase of additional trees to provide shade for the fish in our new fountain,  shrubbery to improve the flower bed surrounding our school’s welcome sign, and additional benches  to encourage sitting in our garden spaces.

 We have a grand vision of engaging art classes to make  identification markers for the various plants, shrubs, and trees around campus, designating certain flowerbeds for our student gardening club to develop and maintain, and creating monthly volunteer work days to bring together the school community for fun  and  for learning gardening skills to utilize in their own yards.  We would like to create  peaceful reading areas, perhaps an outdoor classroom, pollinator gardens, increased birdlife, and, mainly, student appreciation of the benefits of gardening.

Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to our school.