Photograph by Robert Scheer
7th-grader Greg Homen puts a screw into a new garden fence at Sacred Heart, while his dad, Frank Homen, supervises.
By Tim Persyn
Throughout the morning of May 15, gray and black clouds covered the sky, sending Mother Nature's hint that rain was on the way. As the school bell rang at 12:30, a group of Sacred Heart School students ran across the baseball diamond behind the school, toward a patch of dirt surrounded by a skeletal fence.
As the children gathered at a playground nearby, an adult volunteer labored to complete the fence, which will protect Sacred Heart's new school garden.
When the fence around the 1,200 square foot patch of land is completed, the students of Sacred Heart will plant the seeds of a "harvest garden", which will include pumpkins, squash and corn. The garden will be harvested in the fall, perhaps in time for Halloween.
After the produce is harvested, it will be donated to the poor.
Judy and Frank Homen, Sacred Heart parents, have offered their gardening and landscaping skills to get the garden up and running. Meanwhile, Jennifer Sequeira, also a Sacred Heart parent, did much of the organizational work to make the garden happen.
Other members of the Sacred Heart school community have donated time and effort to the garden, while Greenbrier Homes contributed money for materials to build the fence.
Sequeria said the garden can benefit the school's curriculum, in addition to serving the community. In the fall, the garden will be available to science teachers. "The garden is a great way to provide a tool to science teachers while being able to grow something to give to the community," she said.
Seventh and eighth graders might also use the garden to complete community service hours, she added.
Judy Homen summarized the benefits of the garden. "We said, 'Hey let's have garden--we can teach kids to grow veggies and then teach them to give back."
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, May 22, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved