Plainfield Academy lesson in landscaping kicks off partnership with Village of Plainfield
Twenty-five high school students from Plainfield Academy will begin learning about landscaping as a first step in a major community beautification project being done by District 202 and the Village of Plainfield.
TJ Countryman, the Plainfield Village Forestry Crew leader, will give Plainfield Academy students a lesson on tree pruning at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 6, 2008, at the B.P. Nursery on Eastern Avenue. The nursery is located next to the District 202 Operations, Maintenance and Transportation building at 14812 South Eastern Avenue, Plainfield.
"This lesson will be the beginning of a partnership project we will start with the village in April," Service Learning Coordinator Colleen Scofield said.
The students will complete several landscaping projects with the help of the Village. They will use trees and plants from the BP Nursery to landscape medians and, eventually, parks in the downtown Plainfield area, Scofield said.
This is the first year the Village of Plainfield and District 202 have partnered together for the beatification project.
Academy staff members approached the Village to see if their employees would be willing to educate the students on natural plants and planting procedures, said village Planner Sara Leach.
"The village was planning an extensive beautification plan when the school district approached us, and so the partnership has complemented each other from day one," Leach said.
Through the partnership, Academy high school students will be divided into small groups and paired with employees of the Public Works division. They will learn how to follow the beautification plans Leach has drawn and will how to transplant and plant the native plants and trees.
All of the trees and plants from the project will come from the BP Nursery. The nursery is funded by the British Petroleum Leader Award grant that the Academy received three years ago. Leach estimates there is currently about $30,000 worth of landscape stock in the nursery.
The entire nursery stock will eventually be used to develop the medians on Van Dyke Road, Drauden Road and Ridge Road near the Grant Park neighborhood, as well as parks near downtown.
Eventually middle school age students and younger students may work with the Public Works employees to plant flowers and smaller plants in the parks downtown.
"The result for the community will be colorful canopies year round with tons of beautiful flowers," Leach said.