Planting Seeds for Youth to Grow

Though the weather may not quite be cooperating as early as we want it to, spring in Wisconsin is usually a time to think about gardening, new life and keeping our planet in good order so we can enjoy the great outdoors.  As winter folds into spring, it brings a new energy to us all providing a great time to redirect and refocus and students at the Belleville Elementary School are doing just that!

Recently, the Belleville Elementary School Student Council spent time planning a community garden space by putting together four new garden beds.  The new beds were placed in the school’s courtyard for all to enjoy, providing a teachable space to focus on the environment.

These beds were purchased through a By Youth for Youth (BYFY) grant provided through United Way.  BYFY is a committee made up of volunteer high school students from Dane County.  The purpose of this committee is to fund projects developed by youth to serve youth.  Rebecca Johnson (Director of Student Services; Director of Teaching and Learning; ADA Coordinator) received the grant and directed it for this project.

Johnson notes, “It was a grant designed for Belleville High School Youth to work with the younger youth of our district to work on a project.  We wrote the grant to increase leadership for our students to build relationships and to do something to better our school community.”

Building relationships is so important and to this end, it didn’t stop with just peer-to-peer youth commitment for this project — The soil for the beds was donated locally by Schmidt Landscape!  Seeing local business support for educational projects in the schools is a wonderful learning experience for Belleville’s students too when it comes to civic engagement and learning what it means to be a part of a community.  In this way, this project is allowing so many young people to grow in many ways from the experience of gardening.

Belleville Elementary School Principal Kelsey Schmit is excited to see her school take action and pitch in.  “We have a committee at the elementary school called Culture, Climate and Community Connections.  This committee started an Earth Day Day of Service last year.  Each grade level group cleaned up parks, school grounds and left positive sidewalk chalk messages through town.  One idea was to add garden boxes to the interior playground.  This committee, with the help of student council and a grant provided through BYFY, has ordered, assembled and planned for the use of these boxes this spring.  The collaboration and teamwork to get this project accomplished has been fantastic!  I can’t wait to see how this idea grows in the future,” says Schmit.

With the new garden beds in place and warmer weather forecasted for May, the students at Belleville Elementary are looking forward to seeing their first seeds take root, and they are looking forward to planting!  It will be enjoyable to see how a simple plan of action allows Belleville youth to grow in the future.  Today they are planting ideas that hopefully will build a better tomorrow as students learn how to embrace their environment and care for the earth.