Lessons in Service Sprout from New Concord Garden

You have to peek around a bit to find ’s  new community garden.

The quarter-acre triangle of land is nestled in corner, shielded on two sides by fences and tucked at the base of a gentle hill.

The land is speckled with shade from trees that have occupied the space for years, but once planting begins, soon will have new green companions.

Since the beginning of September, contractors from have been tilling and preparing the land for the garden, which should be complete within the next couple of weeks.

The garden will serve not only as a peaceful green space on the school’s grounds, but also a place to solidify lessons with a global reach, said school counselor Helen Park, who spearheaded the project.

Each year Concord students tackle a service project with three components: local, global and curriculum-based, Park said.

In previous years, students have done things like put together nutritional packs for children in underdeveloped countries. Park said a couple of years ago she told the founder of the organization Share Your Soles about the project.

“She said, ‘What happens to those kids when the packs run out?’” Park said. “That made me think. It’s a really great thing, but it’s kind of a like a Band-Aid.”

This year’s focus is again on world hunger but with a different approach.

On the local and global levels, students are collecting pennies to help fund World Vision, which supports farmers in underdeveloped countries by providing them with tools and teaching them farming techniques.

The new garden will fulfill the curriculum portion of the project, as students take responsibility and ownership for their own, grade-level flowerbeds. Tending the beds will help them to connect the work they’re doing with the work of the farmers their donations are helping in far away countries.

“Kids have always been hands-on learners,” Park said. “When they’re actively involved with something, that’s how they really grasp on.”

While the school is going to try to get flowers and gardening tools donated (“We’re looking for really low-maintenance plants,” Park said), the garden itself was funded by a $15,000 grant from the Cass 63 Foundation for Educational Excellence.

Foundation Chair Mary Sullivan said that Park’s enthusiasm for the project made awarding it a grant a simple choice.

“We really liked the idea of taking kids out of the classroom and out of books, and really putting something in their hands,” she said.

It’s also an addition to the school’s grounds that will benefit students for decades, she said.

The garden also will serve as an outdoor classroom in nice weather, particularly for the weekly Skills for Growing Lessons, Park said. During Skills for Growing, the students talk about being responsible members of a community, having good manners and just generally being kind to each other.

There also will be plenty of lessons in good old hard work as the students help plant bulbs to sprout in the spring and clear out winter debris as the days begin to warm.

“They’re going to really want to protect their gardens,” Park said. “It will teach them to beyond themselves.”