The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Volunteer Nellie Durand taught third-graders like Manuel Flores how to plant and care for the healthy, vibrant garden that blooms at Bishop Elementary.

Generations grow together

By Steve Enders

In an area where high technology seems to be increasingly dominant in classrooms, one group of volunteers is taking a Sunnyvale school back to the basics.

Since 1990, Nellie Durand has been spending her Thursdays keeping a garden at Bishop Elementary School in Sunnyvale. Durand and two other seniors, all members of the Sunnyvale Garden Club, help nearly 40 students get their hands in the dirt as well.

The plots are spread out around the campus. The largest stretches of garden are right in the center of the buildings, so kids have a view of the garden from their classrooms. Also, a flower bed lines the Maude Avenue side of the school, directly in front of the window of Room 22--Suzanne Ruthnamswami's special education classroom.

Two classes of fifth-graders and Ruthnamswami's class of 7- to 10-year-old special education kids work together in the gardens. The group is state-certified as a junior garden club.

"The reason we try to work [with the special education kids] and the older kids is to get them to mingle," she said. "The [fifth-graders] were afraid of them. It opens their eyes to other things in the world."

Durand said they have employed a buddy system, where the fifth-graders help the kids from special education in the garden. Now, instead of being afraid, they look forward to working with them, she said.

With the help of the three ladies and the students, plots of formerly rock-hard soil are now tilled and soft--perfect for planting. Rows of healthy lettuce, turnips, cabbage, artichokes and flowers line a few different plots of land around the campus.

Manuel Flores, an 11-year-old at the school, said he likes gardening because it's fun.

"I like digging and touching the worms," he said. "I'm learning about the names of flowers and the parts of the flowers."

Many of these kids, Durand said, have never seen, much less worked in, a garden before.

"It's just really rewarding. That's the only reason I do this," she said.

Durand and the other volunteers, including Carmel Davies and Ann Hines, get support from the school's administrators, as well as by the city's gardening club.

"It's therapy to work with your hands, to be one with nature," assistant principal Frances Dampier said. "It's a marvelous opportunity for urban students who are becoming so Silicon Valley-ized."

The gardens are all organic, as Durand said she doesn't like to use pesticides except when absolutely needed. They use compost bins and worm farms to create fertilizer, which is tilled back into the soil.

The kids and their coaches are getting ready for their annual garden show, taking place this year on April 7.

At the show, judges will come from the Sunnyvale Garden Club, and every student who enters wins an award.

"I've used professional judges before, but they're just too critical," she said.

Also, the kids have previously won three state awards from the state gardening club. To enter the competitions, Durand said, she must document the garden, taking photos and writing descriptions of everything that's in it.

Besides the volunteering at Bishop school, the ladies take their "garden therapy" to local nursing homes.

"For the size of our club, we're an active group," Durand said.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 1, 1998.
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