Wellwood Middle School students and parents worked together Saturday, June 16, to transform the school’s courtyard, building a stone patio and raised flower beds and planting flowers thanks to a $4,200 grant from the Home Depot Foundation.
Ace Hardware of Fayetteville also donated two lilac bushes, a bag of fertilizer and soil to the effort spearheaded by the school’s Courtyard Club.
Teachers Sara Schultz and Jennifer Leslie formed the club last year with five students.
“The Home Depot Foundation grant allowed us to go from a flower bed and two lilac bushes to a courtyard that can now be used as an instructional place in addition to being the new home of three species of birds and hopefully butterflies,” Schultz said.
About 50 volunteers helped beautify the courtyard, including the families of club members Josh Maring, Emily Whelan, Natalie Wilks and Fatma Sula; Wellwood Middle School Principal Melissa Corbin; English as a Second Language teacher Martha Tuttle; Schultz and her husband, Michael; and about 30 volunteers from area Home Depots. The Wellwood Home and School Association provided food and beverages, and Home Depot supplied the hot dogs.
The completed courtyard has six benches, enough to seat about 24 students, Schultz said.
“Along each side of the courtyard we have mulched areas landscaped with both annuals and perennials,” she said. “At one end we also now have a sand box for future archeological digs.”
