A Very Special Giving Gardens Installation

September 29, 2011
A student at Campus Early Childhood Education Center, a Grand Rapids Public School for children with disabilities, lends a helping hand during a Giving Gardens installation at his school earlier this year.
The Giving Gardens had a very special installation earlier this spring, at Campus Early Childhood Education Center (CECEC), a Grand Rapids Public School for children with disabilities. Together students, parents, staff, community members, yoga friends, Kent County Master Gardeners and Giving Gardens’ volunteers dug-in to create a sensory garden using mostly native Michigan plants.
Terri DeBoer, co-host of eightWest on WOOD-TV 8, came out to Plant-It-Forward with us!

The Grand Rapids Press also dished the dirt on our installation:
Garden at Grand Rapids Public School gives kids with disabilities hand-on fun

CECEC Garden “Before”
CECEC Garden “After”
(Photo taken on installation day)
Diggin’ in!
Planting!
Flower Power!
Able-bodied students and their physically challenged friends were all so excited to get their hands in the soil or at least hold a leaf while watching all of the action! 
Although I was completely prepared, logistically, for this installation nothing could have prepared me for the emotional aspect of the day. I was overwhelmed with joy to see all of these kids trying, each in their own way, to create a little patch of happiness at their school.
A special thank you goes to the Brian and Kathleen Kelly family for connecting The Giving Gardens with CECEC. Their youngest daughter, Faith, is a recent graduate of the school. They thought this was a great way to give back to the school that gave Faith so much.
Faith Kelly, graduate of CECEC, plants with her former teacher. 
Thank you to all of the volunteers and plant donors (Noel Horn, Sandra Keiser, Gretchen Southwell, Lakeside Elementary School and Starbucks) that made this garden possible. Your generosity is what keeps The Giving Gardens GROWING!