In the past, garden club has struggled with finding activities to keep their members engaged during the winter months, since they are unable to plant anything. The lack of projects typically leads to a decline in members. However, this year the club’s president, Izzy Hufty (12), had the idea to build a greenhouse in order to maintain and grow membership in the colder months of the year.
“We thought getting a greenhouse would be a good way to make it more of a year-round club,” Hufty said.
They began fundraising for the project in fall. They sold plants at football games, and other school events. After making little money through sales, they turned to the Booster club. The Booster club happily gave them funding to proceed with the project.
After figuring out the finances of the project, the next road block garden club had to overcome was getting a permit.
“One of our major roadblocks was being denied the large outside greenhouse that was originally planned. This greenhouse would have been a permanent addition to the outside gardens, close to the Garden of Hope,” Sarah Williams (11) said.
However, denial to build a permanent greenhouse was a blessing in disguise. The teacher sponsor, Katie Biere, had the idea to build smaller, mobile, greenhouses.
“This allows us to move the greenhouse itself between the inside and outside for any sales or fundraisers, or to simply maintain the plants inside,” Williams said.
Once the logistics of how it would be financed and how it would not violate district policy were figured out, it was time to move on to the third stage: building.
In order to build the structures, the garden club needed some help. They contacted the school’s engineering teacher, Benjamin Creen. Creen enlisted five of his students to manage and run the construction of the project, Caleb Gorman (11), Jude Bill (12), Aiden Hilgendorf (12), Zachary Pruss (12), and Vahin Sasi (12).
These students spend their class periods working on construction. However, they have had their own setbacks.
“Before we opened the box, some of the plastic panels were already cracked which delayed the building process,” Gorman said.
After a year of fundraising, planning, and building, the project is now projected to be done in two weeks. Perfect timing for the garden club to show their new greenhouses off, and sell some of their plants, at the school’s art show on April 30.
