Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Ryan Buck prepares to plant daffodil bulbs while Kyle Parnell waits with shovel to cover them on Wednesday. It was part of teacher Tim Brewers' McKenny Elementary fourth-grade class community project at LBA Park.

Planting project will let kids see their work bloom

Students will help plant 30,000 bulbs in area parks this month

TRISTAN BAURICK, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published October 18, 2001

"It's hard work, but some of us like hard work." -- Marcus Berry, student

OLYMPIA -- After the shovels were packed and the dirty gloves cast aside, a portion of Little Baseball Association Park looked like a battle zone, with soil churned and craters gouged into the grass.

Just wait for spring, say the 18 students in Michael Stine's fifth-grade class. The vibrant colors of crocuses and daffodils will burst forth from the 4,000 bulbs planted Wednesday by students of McKenny Elementary School.

And this is only the beginning.

The Volunteers In Parks Program, a division of Olympia Parks, Arts and Recreation Department, is teaming up with local schools to plant 30,000 flower bulbs this month in parks around the city. The planting at LBA Park kicked off a planting campaign that will include Priest Point Park, Heritage Park, Yauger Park, Bigelow Park, Stevens Field and Woodruff Park.

"Helping out with this planting gives kids a sense of ownership of this park," Volunteers In Parks coordinator Jonathan Turlove said after demonstrating the finer points of planting bulbs to a boisterous crew of kids.

"Hopefully, they'll feel this is their park and be more apt to take care of it and help out at other parks," he said.

Students worked in groups of two or three around small flags Turlove planted, showing where bulbs should be sown. Students dug in with shovels, hand trowels and garden claws, deposited small yellow bulbs and gently covered them with loosened soil.

"We like doing this," said Meghan Staley, one of Stine's fifth-graders. "because it makes this place pretty."

Planting pals Kristen Hitchman and Alixis Waltrip agree. "This park needs more plants; it'll make it a lot nicer," Kristen said.

"Yeah," Alixis said as she scraped dirt from her sneakers, "because it's real plain now."

"These flowers will make it more welcoming," Kristen said.

Nearby, a circle of fifth-grade boys finished work on a large hole.

"It's hard work, but some of us like hard work," said Marcus Berry as he crouched on hands and knees to scrape soil with a garden claw.

"It's important work we're doing," said Kevin Clark, shovel in hand, "because if this place isn't beautiful, people won't come here."

"And the more the merrier," said Chase Gullekson.

Turlove expects the fifth-graders' daffodils to break through the soil by March, lining the park's sidewalks and ball fields with bright yellow flowers.

A patch of crocuses is set to bloom in late February. Turlove said the crocuses will blanket sections of the park's grassy areas with purple, white and orange flowers.

"Participating in this helps the kids understand what it means to be a part of the community," Stine said. "And it's great to get 'em outside and put them to work."

Stine was one of many teachers who led full classes to the park, only a five-minute walk from the school, for one-hour planting shifts. By 3 p.m., more than 300 children had participated in the planting.

"It'll be a great surprise for the kids," Turlove said. "They live near the park, so it'll be neat for them to come back in the spring and see what they planted."

Tristan Baurick writes for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5420.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

back to main Outdoors: Environment index