Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Farmington Students Complete Hands-On Community Projects
FARMINGTON — Students at Lynch Middle School this year have mapped mountain bike trails, helped feed the hungry and made baby quilts for the new Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Northwest Arkansas.
The school’s EAST program basically is made up of two components, community service and job training, said facilitator Caen Dowell.
“It is a healthy mix of technology and service,” he added.
In all, EAST students have worked on numerous projects, with some more involved than others.
Two of the biggest programs for the year have included projects for
Devil’s Den State Park and helping grow starter plants for Cobblestone Farms in Fayetteville.
For Devils’s Den, students mapped trails using GPS and GIS technology. Dowell said park staff already is handing out some of the maps to visitors.
Seventh-grader Carson Dillard is taking an EAST class for the second year and she worked on the trail maps for Devil’s Den. Dillard plans to continue with EAST and trail mapping in eighth grade.
“I like the projects we do,” Carson said. “Mapping is fun. I didn’t think I’d be into this stuff but I am. I’ve been to training and watched videos on how to do it.”
An EAST team created posters and a video of the fall mountain bike festival that the park will use to help promote the event in the future. Other students built and installed trail signs at the park.
Another group of students recently built a new bench for the park and installed it along one of the trails. The bench is made of repurposed and scrap material, Dowell said. The top came from his grandmother’s old oak fireplace mantel. It was warped and students sanded and stained the wood. The legs are made of scrap pieces of cedar.
Most EAST projects are hands-on experiences for students and that’s what students want, Dowell said.
“Some don’t want to sit behind a computer,” he noted.
Monte Fuller, Devil’s Den park superintendent, said his experience with the Farmington students has been a positive one.
The park is a good source for EAST students to use all of their skill levels, Fuller said.
“This has been a positive experience for them and a positive experience for us as we also get a benefit from it,” Fuller added.
Dowell said the class approached Cobblestone Farms about helping it with plants. The school installed a new 8x20-foot greenhouse with a Walton Family Foundation grant. The students are growing starter vegetable plants that are given to Cobblestone to replant in its gardens. Cobblestone provides fresh produce for area food banks and the homeless.
“We’ve been able to lessen the financial burden on them by providing the starter plants. We hope to provide more next year,” Dowell said.
The quilting project started with the interest of one student who wanted to learn to sew. One student already knew about sewing but the others on the team had not even sewed a button on a shirt, Dowell said.
The girls on the team contacted Kathy Garringer about teaching the class and she volunteered her time.
“Mrs. Garringer is gold,” Dowell said. “She’s a retired teacher and she volunteered here unending. She had patience and loved on those girls. All I had to do was watch.”
The quilts were donated to the new Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Springdale, which is scheduled to open in 2018.
Each year, students in EAST classes come up with new projects. Dowell said he looks forward to what students will do in 2017-18.
The overall mission of EAST, Dowell said, is to serve the community and build students’ skills with high-quality, student-led projects that incorporate a spectrum of technologies and skill development opportunities.