Lilavois receives Master Gardener grant for James Clemens
Joelle Lilavois surveys preliminary work on the experiment garden at James Clemens High School. Lilavois received the Jane. R. Parks Memorial Grant from the Master Gardeners of North Alabama. (CONTRIBUTED)
MADISON – Joelle Lilavois at James Clemens High School has received the Jane. R. Parks Memorial Grant from the Master Gardeners of North Alabama.
Lilavois teaches standard and advanced-placement environmental science. She applied with the master gardeners while researching grants last summer.
Lilavois wants the grant to connect students to their town and state. “What better ways than through the environment?” she said.
Master gardener Rose Berry said their committee “liked Joelle’s application because we found it exciting for James Clemens to have an outdoor environmental classroom. To fund more and better raised beds for gardening for all the students is a good way to spend the grant monies.”
Other grant winners were CASA of Madison County and Deep Roots of Alabama.
By working in the garden, students can leave the classroom to see science in action during hands-on experience and learn about farming techniques and sustainability. “Getting a little dirty will be good for them, too,” Lilavois said.
The garden will jive with “Jet Core Values” at James Clemens. Involvement with the community, parents and businesses “can create an infectious atmosphere that builds excitement throughout the school,” Lilavois said.
Lilavois will buy supplies, like popcorn seeds and squash, with the $700 grant from Lowe’s or other Madison stores. Students will build larger, sturdier beds. After fundraising for a pump, classes will grow strawberry seeds in a hydroponics system.
In thanking the master gardeners, Lilavois said, “I feel blessed to do what I do. It makes me smile to see students’ faces watch their plants grow.”
In cross-curricular study, James Clemens’ construction class helped build the hydroponics system and will assist with building beds. “When they teach us about the system, they don’t want us to mess it up. It’s their hard work. They love it,” Lilavois said.
For the future, Lilavois hopes to raise funds for a shaded outdoor area with benches and tables to run outdoor labs. The area would be an excellent venue for cross-district labs with James Clemens’ feeder schools.
