Grant funds community garden at Pizitz

At Pizitz Middle School in Vestavia Hills, members of an environmental science club have transformed a lot on campus into a community garden.

The project was born thanks to a $1,500 donation from the Vestavia Hills City Schools Foundation, as part of a $5,000 grant that also added Chromebooks to create minilabs at the school.

For Kelly Sorrell, in her 13th year as a teacher at Pizitz Middle School, the grant allowed her to create the environmental science club and share her passion for gardening with the students.

When a school board member suggested Sorrell write a grant to build the community garden at Pizitz Middle, she didn’t think the timing was good. Sorrell was swamped finishing her master’s and teaching, and her youngest child was about to graduate from high school.

“It turned out to be a godsend because I was diagnosed with cancer in December, awarded the grant in January, and the planting of the community garden gave me something positive to focus on during treatments,” Sorrell said. “I am now in remission and having a great time with the garden.”

Sorrell received $1,500 from the foundation plus a private grant from Dr. Chandler Smith and his wife, Jane, to cover the rest of the $10,000 construction cost.

Before the garden was built, the area on the Pizitz Middle campus contained a deck with benches around it and overgrown lots. 

“We added raised beds around, cleaned it up, painted the benches, and the kids planted all of the vegetables,” Sorrell said. “GartenFest installed all the beds and also donated lots of plants. David Swindal from there has been a huge supporter of our project.”

Besides flowers, the community garden has contained herbs, fruits and vegetables such as radishes, carrots, green beans, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, chives, basil, okra, grapevines and strawberries.

Sorrell said she hopes the students learn to appreciate nature.

“Gardening has always been a personal passion of mine,” she said. “I wanted to share that with the students. It offers a lifelong learning activity. Even though I am a master gardener and took a class, that doesn’t mean I never fail. Gardening is a lot of science, art and a lot of luck.”

Some members of the environmental science club said working in the community garden has been a joy. Henry Nance said it has allowed him to bond even closer to his classmates.

“This club is really awesome,” Cade Young said. “It shows us how hard it is to grow plants and how the environment works.”

David Barry, Wyatt Cook and J.P. Deavers said getting to grow and eat the vegetables and fruit they grow has made the environmental club fun.

“You get to pick things and taste them,” J.P. said. “Everything in here that we have grown tastes awesome.”

Even if the students don’t pursue gardening careers, Sorrell said the community garden can benefit them with their family gardens at home or in adulthood.

“It’s something you can do at a low cost, or you can put a lot of money into it,” Sorrell said. “I want them to be able to share the personal satisfaction of growing something healthy they can eat.”

Sorrell said she is appreciative of the Vestavia Hills City Schools Foundation, Chandler Smith and her friend Becky Babanats for making the community garden possible.

“Becky helped me secure the private grant and set up here with me during spring break for installation of the garden,” Sorrell said. “It was something fun to do and allowed me to still feel connected to the children even when I was on leave of absence.”  

The board of directors of the Vestavia Hills City Schools Foundation awarded 13 grants totaling $61,000 to the eight schools in the Vestavia Hills system and to the Vestavia Hills Board of Education for the 2014-15 school year.

Grants awarded this year will provide schools with curriculum enhancements for reading, math and science; technology-related equipment; and professional development for teachers. In addition, the foundation’s $28,000 grants to the Board of Education will provide training opportunities for every teacher in the Vestavia Hills school district to further implement the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards and to further integrate technology into classroom lessons.

For a complete list of the grants awarded this year, visit vestaviafoundation.org.