Rotary member Warren Gilson helps students place plants in gardening boxes on Tuesday at Oglethorpe County Senior Center. A wide variety of plants, including tomatoes, peppers, Zucchini squash and garden sage, were planted. (Photo/Emilie Sullivan)
A muti-generational workday at the Oglethorpe County Senior Center Tuesday resulted in 10 raised garden boxes for visitors to use and enjoy.
“We have young high school students all the way up to very mature Rotary members,” said Sara Hughes, Oglethorpe County High School work-based learning coordinator and organizer of the event. “Some of them are in their 80s. I don't think that they would mind me telling you that, because they’re proud that they can still contribute, even physically.”
Students from various OCHS clubs, including Interact Club, National Honor Society and FFA, participated in the 75-minute workday at the center, along with members of Rotary, a representative from Project Safe, students from the middle school and other community members.
Creating the raised garden boxes was a multi-step process. Volunteers prepared the area where the boxes would be placed by spreading mulch. They then lined the boxes with landscape fabric and then they filled the boxes with soil and seedlings.
Before all those steps, OCHS agriculture teacher Travis Sertich and his students built the raised boxes at the high school. Most of the gardening supplies came from Oglethorpe Feed and Hardware Supply in Crawford.
The project was funded through a Rotary Foundation matching grant for $1,500.
OCHS student Allison Kitchen, who is secretary of the Interact Club, said it can be “hard to find those people that will actually commit to projects,” so she enjoyed seeing all the hard work everyone put in for this workday.
Jean Westmacott, a Rotary Club volunteer, said building the garden boxes was a great service for the center.
“I think Corie (Robinson, center director) has done a fabulous job with the senior center,” Westmacott said, “and I just love to see people gardening.”