CAPE helps kickstart Garden’s Gate project

Imagine open and natural spaces within a school setting. Think big. Worktables and benches, chalkboards and stages. Flowers and artwork, music and sculpture. Dream bigger. Zen gardens and chess boards, glider swings and butterfly bushes. Let your imagination soar. Solar-powered waterfalls, apple trees, vegetable gardens, and a performance amphitheater.

School adjustment counselor and clinical social worker Donna Creed Bauman

School adjustment counselor and clinical social worker Donna Creed Bauman’s hope is to take five neglected outdoor spaces at Canton High School and develop them for school-wide and community use.

“The Garden’s Gate project will enable students from the entire student body to join and work cooperatively on a project visible and utilized by all students,” Bauman said. “It will provide pride and ownership for the entire community.”

With funds from a grant from the Canton Alliance for Public Education (CAPE), the first phase of the five-year plan is underway. Ground Management Landscape owner Richard Andrade, as well as a dedicated group of “garden angels,” cleared years of accumulated debris from the courtyard accessible to the music and art wings, and a courtyard off the Autism Spectrum Disorders classroom.

The ASD courtyard will provide an alternate and natural space for learning. Enhancing the area will be bird feeders and wall planters, a Pergola bench swing and wooden shelves. The school’s solarium has been renovated so that students can work there to propagate and grow plants for display in the courtyard and for school events.

“Students do better if they have alternative settings,” said Bauman, whose unflagging energy and positive attitude are directly related to the project’s success. “Hands-on things are therapeutic.”

Visual arts teacher Michelle Mendez also received a CAPE grant to design, create, and install a collaborative stained glass mosaic sculpture for inclusion in the arts courtyard of Garden’s Gate.

“Students who use the courtyard for outdoor sketching and drawing will appreciate the focal point,” said Mendez, who is hopeful and optimistic about the project. “Public art is a way of building community with a common theme and carries over time and season.”

Proposed for the arts courtyard are performance platforms, meditative sitting areas, a living wall, and perennial gardens. According to Ken Costello Designs, who was hired through a generous private donation, the overall model includes nine ‘rooms’ like a tic-tac-toe board based on the layout of the existing concrete patios. Each room has a specific identity but can be used for multiple purposes.

Maintenance of both outdoor classrooms will be adopted by the respective classes that utilize them. However, additional funding and community resources are required to sustain the integrity of the spaces.

“What we need is the donation of services,” said Bauman, an avid gardener, tireless worker, and visionary. “Garden’s Gate is coming along, but we wouldn’t be where we are without help from volunteers and townspeople. Support from the School Committee and the administration has been amazing.”

Bauman’s well-organized five-year plan is ambitious and far-reaching. “Maybe it’s my Pollyanna glasses, but if you look at all the things that can stop you, you don’t even try.”

Design plans for Garden’s Gate are on display at the Canton library and the town hall. Additional information may be obtained through the Canton Public Schools and Canton High School website under Community/Garden’s Gate Project.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=18682

Posted by Ruth Weiner on Jan 31 2013. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.