The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Eleventh-grader Aries Aley reads by the new flowers at Fremont High School.

Tiptoe through the tulips

By Steve Enders

Passing Fremont Avenue on Sunnyvale-Saratoga Road in a car has recently become very eye-pleasing, and walking around the Fremont High School campus is even nicer.

Enhancing the salmon-colored buildings of Fremont High School on the west side of the intersection are pink, white, violet, red and yellow tulips lining the school's walkways, front sidewalks and interior quads.

The flowers are planted along the walkways along with rose bushes that haven't yet bloomed. Inside the campus, beds of tulips, petunias, roses and daffodils brighten the grounds.

Gina Roberti, Fremont's associated student body president, said students held a penny drive to raise money to plant the flowers, and points were awarded to the class with the most pennies. The freshmen won the competition with the most points, but the sophomores, she said, brought in the most money.

In all, the students raised $300 for the flowers.

"I love them," said the 17-year-old Roberti. "It's too bad they don't last. By the time [the tulips] die, though, the roses will be up."

According to Bob Stahl, Fremont's groundskeeper, various clubs on campus have raised money for the flowers and bulbs, and other community organizations have put up money for the flowers.

"The students really take pride in what we're doing," Stahl says. "They respect it and like it. Students have stayed after school to plant the beds, and clubs adopt beds [to maintain]."

Gina Roberti said she hasn't seen any students disrespecting the flowers, "but some of the boys have picked them for their girlfriends."

This year, student and community groups raised more than $3,500 to purchase the 9,756 bulbs and flowers. Stahl and his small staff and student volunteers planted the bulbs within a week.

Also, Stahl says, a now-defunct custodian fund had raised about $2,000 for the flowers. Stahl says his goal for this year is to get an additional $2,000 in donations from the community to make up for that fund so that bulbs can be purchased for next year.

Roberti said she's working at the Sunnyvale Nursery and might have the inside track on buying the next batch of bulbs at a discount.

Of the flowers planted, 7,000 are tulip bulbs, 1,000 are daffodil bulbs and 50 are rosebushes.

In April, Stahl said, he and his staff of three groundskeepers will dig up the tulip bulbs and store as many as possible for replanting. In their place, red and white petunias will be planted for the end of the year and graduation ceremonies.

Planting the red and white flowers for graduation has been a Fremont tradition for as long as Stahl has kept the school's grounds.

"We'll replant most of the tulips, and about 30 percent of those will be lost," he said. When they're replanted, they'll go inside the campus flower beds, and new ones will line the walkways in front of the school.

Stahl said another project of his was to take down the fence on the Fremont Avenue side of the school to open the area and plant even more flowers.

Although Stahl credited Principal Pete Tawana with making sure the flowers get planted each year, Tawana said that Stahl is the driving force of the flower-planting tradition.

"I have no problem with him doing it," Tawana said. "The other day, there was a lady with her young kids standing in the tulips, and she was taking pictures of them. It'll be interesting to see how many people come out here on Easter Sunday.

"This is a great deal of joy for me," said Stahl, a former Fremont student. "The groundskeepers are doing a heck of a job keeping it up."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, March 25, 1998.
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