Monticello Live

Students from MIS’s gardening program “Veggie Power” applied for a grant through Project Wild with the Arkansas Game and Fish, with help from Mrs. Louisa Smith, and were surprised Tuesday morning with a check for the amount of $3,495.66.

Fourth grade teacher Crystal Grimes told MLive, as the students waited in the Learning Garden, that they had no idea what was about to happen.

Pat Knighten, Project Wild Coordinator, came from Little Rock to present the check to the students. The money will be used to continue the efforts already started by the kids, such as the hummingbird area and the bog garden.

Pat Knighten told the students, “I am so proud of you! The first time I came down here there was nothing here… this looks incredible!”

According to Knighten, MIS is only one of 48 schools in Arkansas to receive the grant money.

The students had a surprise of their own lined up for Mrs. Louisa Smith, to thank her for all of her hard work and dedication to them and the Learning Garden. A beautiful bench was purchased, and they asked Mrs. Smith to pick a spot in the Learning Garden to place it. It will be there in her honor.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Monticello School News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.