Patrick Henry has one of the most incredible school gardens in the city of St. Louis. It is large and well-maintained, but we made some significant improvements this school year so that we could make the garden accessible to all students and volunteers, including those with physical disabilities. In previous years, our garden had uneven walking terrain that made it difficult to navigate for our students with disabilities, and impossible for our students and volunteers with assistive walking devices.

We started researching how we could make this garden open to every person in our school and neighborhood, and we realized we needed help. We started meeting with our community partners, and we had an incredible number of people step up to meet our needs. They came together as a team to create a smooth, concrete surface so that all walkers, wheelchairs, and uneven walking gaits could still navigate the garden safely.

This week, we were able to reopen the garden with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a planting celebration with our students! See below for photos of the highlights of this celebration day where students were able to enjoy healthy snacks, smoothies from Southwest Food Services, time on the smoothie bike, and planting their spring harvest as a team.

This project took an enormous amount of support and donations from our community partners. We want to recognize and thank the following people for making this project possible:

• Scott Downs, Apprenticeship Program Coordinator, Cement Mason's Union Local 527
• Jeff Caputa, Instructor from the Cement Masons Apprenticeship Program
  
• Brad Campbell, Financial Secretary Treasurer for the Cement Mason's Union Local 527
• Jim Renick, Business Agent for the Cement Mason's Union Local 527
• Eric Marshall, Sales Manager for Western Ready-Mix
• Ken Kozlowski, District Manager for Ceco Concrete Construction
• Dan Boyd, Safety Director for Vee Jay Cement
• Justin Arens, Project Engineer for Vee Jay Cement
• Diana Wilhold, Deputy Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer, Construction Forum
• Leanne White, Director of Healthy Schools Initiatives, St. Louis Public Schools
  
• Denise Strehlow, Manager of BJC School Outreach and Youth Development
• Erica Oliver, Community Health Partner of BJC School Outreach and Youth Development
• Morgan Ralphs, Physical Education Teacher of Patrick Henry

See below for the progress of this project that began in December:

• Phase 1
• Phase 2
• Phase 3

We planted our spring seeds, and over the next days, weeks, and months, our seeds will grow into seedlings and plants and eventually be ready for harvest (and eating!). Below you can see our starting point for our class beds, and this semester we will keep you updated on how the growth is going!