With the threat of thunderstorms hanging overhead, Amelia Lyndsey was more concerned with pulling weeds than dodging raindrops.
Amelia and her mom, Jennifer Lyndsey, were among the handful of volunteers at Colvin Run Elementary School Saturday morning, observing Earth Day by doing some maintenance on the school’s emerging flower gardens and spreading mulch on trees.
“Look Mom, I’m a weed,” Amelia exclaimed, standing in a blue plastic bucket where handfuls of clovers and dried grass clippings were discarded.
A local landscape artist has created a plan for the buffer area between the school and the parking lot, said Elaine Tholin, a parent volunteer at Colvin Run. When completed, the gardens that wind across the front of the school will resemble a river.
“We’re making a Native American medicine wheel today that will be part of the children’s garden,” Tholin said. “This whole project started a little over a year ago after talking with teachers about what kinds of things would be useful to them and how we could bring the kids outside.”
The medicine wheel was measured out on Friday by fourth grade students and rocks were set in place to depict directional points and divide the circle into four quadrants, she said.
“We’re researching medicine wheels to make it a little more authentic but we’re trying to keep it pretty simple, since every tribe did something a little different,” she said.
Each direction had a specific characteristic and color assigned to it, she said, and the plan is to plant a flower in each quadrant that has the same color.
Another work day is scheduled for May 14 at the school for work to continue on planning the garden.