Volunteers joined forces to construct raised garden beds for the brand new “Green Thumbs” Garden Club at Westside Elementary School. The club is sponsored by the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy.
A service-learning group from the Virginia Tech-Carilion School of Medicine, Blue Ridge Land Conservancy Staff, volunteers from the Kiwanis Club of Roanoke, and Westside Elementary Vice-Principal Steve Sizemore and other teaching staff constructed cedar wood raised garden beds last Saturday.
The garden club, sponsored through the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy and funded through a community grant from the Kiwanis Club of Roanoke as well as donations from several local gardening stores, will be a six-week after-school program designed to teach students the importance of healthy eating habits as well as getting them in touch with their outdoor environment.
As part of their volunteer work, the service-learning group has created lessons for the students ranging from identifying plant parts to learning what nutrients come from plants and are helpful to students’ bodies.
The students will be able to grow edible plants in their garden beds, and will learn about what it takes to grow a vegetable. As one of the teacher volunteers on Saturday noted, “My first-graders ask me all the time how plants grow. They just don’t know how we get our food. This will be a great way to show them.” Over the summer, students will be encouraged to maintain their garden beds and will be able to harvest the vegetables they have grown.
For more information on the school garden clubs sponsored by the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy, visit www.blueridgelandconservancy.org/garden
