Week 15 - MLK Week

Our week of service honored the memory of Martin Luther King Jr.

Monday - Nursery

In order to provide plants for the Perkins School project (below) we had to earn them at the native plant nursery. We just spent the day moving plants from the most recent salvage event into the nursery. After that task was complete, we brought out pots with no live plant for weeding and soil reclamation.

Moving plants

Grrrrrr!

The highlight, er lowlight, of the day was the rancid smell of a bucket of decomposing weeds... Normally I can stand the smell of something bad, but this smell, brought about an instinctual spin move. Everyone else just looked at me funny. Slowly but surely the odor made its way to their olfactory organ. I am sure they might agree it was the worst smell we've encountered thus far. I would put it at the top of my list.

Tuesday - The Perkins School

This was the pinnacle of our project. Working with a school to teach them about the importance of native plants and help them establish a native plant garden. After a morning of preparation we made our way to The Perkins School.

Can't wait to see how this place turns out...

Upon our arrival Mr. Deese gave us a tour of the school. It was amazing. If only each and every school in our nation was like this... Well I will remember this school as a benchmark. Many of us reflected back upon our elementary school days and wished we had half of what was available at this school. It wasn't necessarily the facilities that the school had to offer, it was the structure and freedom. Kids were encouraged to be kids.

Science. This school taught science! There are only faint memories from my schooling about science... we got to keep caterpillars until they became butterflies. Anyways, it is exciting to see this offered and even more exciting to see how enthusiastic the students were. Soon after we began setting up the plants outside and the lesson plan inside.

Cool fungus that caught my eye

Captured by Michelle Manza

DIY nurse log

OMGGGGGGGGGG

After our lunch break the first group of students arrived. The 4th and 5th graders sat down and our presentation began. Kris started with our introduction. Sarra continued with native plants and the importance of biodiversity. Shea then spoke about the layers of the forest. Max and Michelle talked about wildlife. I capped it off with a bit on restoration and moved onto plant identification.

We had set up the tables with an example of each species that were to be planted in their garden. Kris ran through all the plants and we got outside to do some planting! These kids knew what they were doing. I didn't need to help them out at all. As we all know, kids love candy. A question asked by one of the students, "Off topic but, do all of you have candy in your pockets?"

Sweet, sweet motivation - Literally!

The school dog - Bunny!

Doing work!

Supervisor supervising

Good form?

Busy bees

Next up, the 2nd and 3rd graders! They were a handful and got off topic given any opportunity. They were great planters though. When their energy is focused, they can get a lot done. When the planting was complete we just sat back and imagined what it would look like. 

Hands up

Mr. Deese, Shea, Max, and Michelle (Left to right)

Mr. Deese

Captured attention

They are just getting started!

Planting machines!

The only one who noticed the camera

More plants... um yea they are around here somewhere...

Wednesday - Food Cannery

For our last day we worked at a food bank cannery in Kent. The food, carrots in this case, would likely have gone to waste. Instead we are preserving them in cans where they will feed hundreds of families.

It starts with sorting through frozen and chopped carrots, removing any ends and in edibles. Afterwards they are put through a warm bath and separated. From there they are sorted again and distributed to the weighing stations. Cans are inspected and a tablet of salt is placed inside. At the weighing stations 9.5 oz of carrots are measured out where they are then placed on the conveyor belt. On the belt they are filled with water, cooked, and capped. Afterwards they are placed in a large metal cage and pressure cooked. From there they were dried, labeled, boxed, put on a pallet, and wrapped.

I will let the photos do the rest of the talking... there are many...

For more photos click here!