It seems appropriate that Westside Elementary School’s colors are green, because it turns out its second grade students have green thumbs — a skill they showed by creating a garden at the Powell Valley Care Center.

The project was the brainchild of Westside PE teacher Luke Robertson, who after obtaining a $10,000 Feeding Laramie Valley Grant under the advice of Wyoming Farm to School Coordinator Bobby Lane, approached the Powell Valley Care Center at the end of the 2023-2024 school year about partnering on the project. 

Robertson likes to approach teaching with a “why not?” mentality, meaning why can’t students learn to garden as a lifelong way to stay fit, or fly a kite or learn how to ride a bike in school?

“Gardening is a physical activity. Farmers around here, they’re physically fit. They’re moving around,” Robertson said, adding, “I wanted to bring that to my classes.”

Robertson wants to eventually have an exclusive unit for each grade level. Last year the second grade classes joined the kindergarten and first grade classes in the bike unit but found the second grade students were a little too big.

He had the idea to implement gardening in part because his son, a member of the second grade class, loves to garden; it was “part of the inspiration,” Robertson said. 

He talked to then Principal Angie Woyak about the unit and knew early into planning the unit he needed a partner.

“The hard part of starting a garden is the kids are gone in the summer,” Robertson said. “And so it’s like, if we start a garden, you know, how are we going to take care of it during the summer.”

Powell Valley Care Center was in on the idea. Robertson and his students purchased equipment to grow seed indoors and planted them in March. They would check on the plants, which were kept in their second grade classrooms for collaborative learning. 

As this was happening the courtyard at Powell Valley Care Center was also undergoing a transformation. The students went over three times and were able to see when the courtyard was just leveled dirt, when gravel was laid down and as the planters were being built with lumber donated by Gun Stock Timber Frames. Ahead of the project the courtyard had nothing in the space except for river rock. The high school football team hauled that out in the fall, Robertson said. 

“One of the challenges with that courtyard is that there’s no outdoor access to the courtyard,” Robertson said. “It can only be accessed through the building, and so the football team scooped it out on wheelbarrows and then hauled it out through the lobby.”

From there, landscaper Terry Cronin and Robertson managed to get a mini skid steer into the courtyard in order to take out 4 inches of dirt and install a watering system. Volunteers then came in with Robertson to bring in the gravel and members of the Powell Elks lent a hand building the beds with Robertson after school for two days. Then volunteers Jerry Rodriguez, Christa Munari and Jason Hardy, along with Robertson, took the soil Cronin had removed and piled, and installed it into the beds as a base. Topsoil donated by Fry Gravel and Excavation was moved by volunteers through the lobby and installed into the beds. Equipment was borrowed from Ryno Rentals and the Brence family. 

“It was a neat community project because we had all these outside groups that were helping from the different volunteers and Elks and anybody who just wanted to come help,” Robertson said.

At the May 27 grand opening Robertson thanked those involved in making it a reality. Robertson also appreciated the support from Park County School District 1. 

Then students sang, showed their loved ones the plants they had raised and planted with their own two hands and talked to care center residents as they prepared to take over for the summer.

The garden runs on an automatic drip system, explained Amy Williams, the social services and recreations coordinator, so the residents make sure the system is watering the plants properly. Some bell peppers just appeared, she said. 

Many of the center’s residents used to garden, and have lost some of the independent things they used to do, Williams said. While she does not garden, the residents involved have helped out by teaching the staff how much water each plant needs and different things to look for. 

“I can see down the long hallway from my office, and I see them looking out the door in the windows all the time, or going out to the patio and looking at the garden,” Williams said. “And then they’ll come and tell me what I need to do.”

Once Robertson has his mind on something it will get done, Williams said, “I can’t wait for more projects in the future, this has been so fun for the residents and the kids to get to collaborate like this.”