Lowe’s grant helps students with ‘Green Courtyard’ plans

Peninsula High students work to make area attractive

Hugh McMillan

special to the Gateway

Saturday’s goofy on-again, off-again weather did not dissuade National Honor Society students from finishing a project that began last year.

Along with parents and Peninsula High School Booster Club members, the students formed committees and came up with the “Green Courtyard” concept for an area on campus currently filled with unruly trees and plants.

The project began last year when then-NHS president Olivia Konicek requested the Honor Society have a say in the design for the school’s courtyard, which was inaccessible to wheelchairs and unusable by students and teachers.

The “Green Courtyard” idea incorporated handicap-accessible pathways, low-water requirements, low maintenance landscaping, an “outdoor classroom” concept, and an overall beautification of the space that sits in the center of the Peninsula High School campus.

The hope was that it would be an appealing place for teachers and students.

Now it’s becoming reality.

Current Peninsula NHS president, senior Blair Burmark, has assisted in making the dream a reality. She coordinated this year’s “Campus Clean-up” and has met with Gilliam Construction and Purdy Topsoil during the planning stages.

Peninsula High School Boosters Club was selected for a $6,700 national grant by Lowe’s Toolbox for Education, a program funded by Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation which has supported thousands of grassroots community and school projects in communities where Lowe’s does business.

Only when the whole community joined in the project did it become a reality.

From large corporations like Lowe’s, small businesses with big hearts like Gilliam Construction, and the partnership of the parents of Booster Club and the students of National Honor Society.

Gilliam Construction, Inc., a Key Peninsula company helping the booster club, has donated time and labor to make this project succeed.

“Chris Gilliam, owner of the firm, took this project to heart and has helped secure other generous donations from local companies, such as Purdy Topsoil, Morrison Gravel, RTC Construction, Haugen Construction, NC Machinery, American Laser Works and Stoneway Electrical Supply,” said Mindi LaRose, a parent volunteer. “Because of Chris’ dedication, this project will see completion, and at more than half off of the regular cost of labor and supplies.

“Harbor Christian Center, a church which holds its services at Peninsula High every week, has also donated a generous amount to cover bricks for the walls of the planter area.”

Sue Goetz of Creative Gardener was instrumental in working with the school’s National Honor Society students in creating the landscape architectural plans for the “Green Courtyard,” which were purchased by NHS students.

LaRose said Lowe’s Toolbox for Education assists with projects that encourage parent involvement and build stronger community spirit.

“There is a preference for funding requests which have a permanent impact, such as facility enhancement, both indoor and outdoor, as well as landscaping/cleanup type projects,” she said. “In order to qualify for the Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant program, your group must complete the grant application.”

For additional information, call booster’s club co-presidents Wendy Wojtanawicz at 253-858-6969 or Kris Williamson at 253-851-1075.

Hugh McMillan is a longtime freelance writer for The Peninsula Gateway. He can be reached at 253-884-3319.