Stone Hill Elementary School recently applied for and received a $500 Community Builder Grant from OneCranston, an initiative of CCAP for the creation of garden beds on the school property.

According to Gail DeRobbio, a teacher at the school, the grant was one of several she explored and applied for in the hopes of making her vision of an outdoor learning environment for the school a reality.

“I started last year and applied for a Spark Grant from the Rhode Island Foundation and I’ve also applied for a Lowe’s grant,” she said. “I had presented the idea for the outdoor classroom to our Parent Teacher Group (PTG) at the final meeting of the school year last year and they were enthused about it. Over the summer when I heard about the OneCranston Community Builder grants, I applied for one.”

According to a press release from OneCranston, “The Community Builders Small Grants Program identifies and partners with residents interested in bringing their neighbors together to complete projects that improve their communities. OneCranston Community Builders Grants can fund a variety of neighborhood-based activities including neighborhood clean ups, beautification projects, cultural events or celebrations, enhancement or creation of public spaces, school improvements, or any other ideas that you and your neighbors believe will bring people together to improve their neighborhoods.”

At Open House this fall, information about the newest grant was presented to the PTG and to the school community. Parent volunteer Jack Newbury jumped on board, as did several other parents. Newbury helped to solicit donations for the project as well as helping with the plans for the raised “S” shaped beds.

Stone Hill Principal Tricia Totolo was fully supportive of the initiative and excited about the plans.

“Gail had a whole vision for a place in which families and kids can go to relax, where we can have local Rhode Island plant life and a learning space for all teachers to use,” Totolo said. “It would be ecologically friendly.”

DeRobbio’s goal was to also have the students be more aware of their environment, and to that end, there is a hope that future grant money can help to fund the installation of a greenhouse.

“Last week we planted 400 daffodil and tulip bulbs in the raised beds, and we have had so much student and family involvement in this project,” DeRobbio said. “Our student involvement team has 70 students on it from grades three to five who have been very involved, and we have had a lot of students and neighbors who helped out on October 20 when we had our school’s Beautification Day. They worked on many different areas, painting spools, building the beds and cleaning up dead limbs and blowing the leaves. The goal that we have of getting people involved with their kids’ education has no boundaries. People can be involved in so many ways.”

Newbury found that many community partners enjoyed the opportunity to help out the school, and found that just asking the question could lead to a positive reply. “I was at the gas station and saw a guy with a dump truck and I just asked him if he’d be interested in donating his services, and he said yes,” Newbury said. “I went into Rossi Electric and asked if they’d donate their spools, and they said yes. True Green Solutions donated the loam and The Original Italian Bakery came to us with four big boxes of pizza chips that they just dropped off to us. Apparently, a neighbor saw us out there working and asked the guy to bring it.”

According to DeRobbio, Newbury, and Totolo, the core leadership team for the OneCranston raised bed project also included PTG president Linda Aul, who they describe as being a driving force in the project, and the group was responsible for planning and budgeting the project, as well as laying out the specific plans, but the project could not have been done without the involvement of the school community, from the staff and students to the families who all jumped on board and supported the work being done.

According to Totolo, the outdoor projects are all part of a shared vision which allows the students to be involved in things outside of their classroom work.

“Our goal of letting the kids do something, to have ownership and to be a part of it started last year when we had our fifth-grade students paint rocks in their art classes which are cemented in outside, a little legacy they left behind when they graduated,” Totolo said. “This year we chatted with the PTG about how to get more families involved in our community. This grant and this project really helped us to further meet that goal.”