Garden delivers sense of calm to North Elementary students
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EAST LIVERPOOL -- Although the remote learning put a bit of a damper on it temporarily, North Elementary School's sensory garden and playground looks to be the site of much activity in upcoming months.
Heritage Thermal Services announced Wednesday the sensory garden received a $1,000 environmental project grant as part of its annual program benefiting non-profits and school environmental efforts.
One of the garden's founders, Megan Hernandez, explained that the grant will be used to further develop the garden, which was just an overgrown, underused outdoor space less than five years ago.
Sensory gardens are created to stimulate visitors' sense of sight, smell, touch, taste and sound, according to www.planetnatural.com. These are especially beneficial to children who have sensory processing issues without unintentionally overwhelming them by keeping them calm and interested.
The successful grant receipt is the latest development with the playground/garden space, where an outdoor stage was removed and replaced with a custom-seating area recently.
According to Hernandez, Joseph Hissom had built the crescent-shaped bench, which allows up to 25 students to sit 3 feet apart, in this post-pandemic era of masks and social distancing, as an adult is the center of attention. She said funding from the seating came from the Fawcett Foundation, which has awarded the playground/garden effort more than $2,600 in community grant funds since its inception.
"We try to meet outside with the children when the weather cooperating, and it is nice to now have seats," Hernandez added.
Students in Joshua Ludwig's landscaping class at East Liverpool High School will work up a proposal to revamp the sensory garden space as a class project with funding from grants and the district's buildings/grounds fund.
Scouts from Boy Scout Troop 41 also have donated work to the project, including Kyle Haustman and Vincent Hoppel. Hoppel's mother is a fourth-grade teacher at North, and he removed the stage for a service project. Haustman will be finishing up the seating area for his Eagle Scout badge.
In addition to plenty of flora and nature, the area also includes two agility and activity trails, which include multiple games like leap frog, Tic-Tac-Toe, Chutes and Ladders and a golf putting green among hand-painted activity areas.
More than four dozen members of the district's tennis, volleyball and soccer teams were also involved with the initial creation, volunteering for artist duty to paint areas both in the garden and playground, said Hernandez.
"It is a vast improvement to what it looked like four years ago. Before it was overgrown and underutilized, and now the staff and students can enjoy it," she said, adding that she is excited to see it used during the upcoming inaugural district summer camp.