Photos: Volunteers Help Diamond Path Students Install Outdoor Classroom, Orchard

In between last week’s bouts of rain, Diamond Path Elementary students were outside working on a project that actually will benefit from soggy weather.

With a $2,300 grant from Thomson Reuters and help from nearly 60 of their employees, staff and students have since fall been planning and installing an outdoor classroom and orchard outside the school, where portable classrooms once sat.

All last week, students and volunteers planted apple and pear trees, laid stones for pathways and spread soil and mulch.

“The kids have done everything,” said Jane Eaton, the school’s technology specialist.

Well, almost everything. Volunteers took care of pouring concrete around 15 wooden benches where students eventually will sit to learn about organic gardening once fruit begins to grow. They also read to classes about the coinciding Arbor Day holiday.

“It’s wonderfully rewarding,” said Lisa Anderson, the Diamond Path parent and senior occupational health nurse with Thomson Reuters who spearheaded the project.

Anderson, who sits on her company's community volunteer council, said she wanted to help her daughter, Diamond Path fifth grader and student council president Jacqueline Anderson, do something for the school.

“This is what seemed to make the most sense,” she said, especially in light of the school district budget crunch.

The project has since combined somewhat with another that Diamond Path was already working on—the Japanese garden that sits right next to the outdoor classroom, which students voted to name “Stepping Stones for Peace.”

Students and staff will finish the garden in coming weeks by putting in an archway, more plants and possibly a small bridge, Eaton said. The garden, funded by a federal grant, stemmed from the school’s mission to incorporate multicultural projects and create beautiful surroundings, she said.

The same landscape designer who worked on the garden also designed the outdoor classroom and orchard, she said, and he’ll also teach students.

Students had a great time taking a break from traditional classroom activities to go outdoors, Eaton said.

“They just worked so hard,” she said. A dedication for the projects is scheduled for June 1.

Staff still are planning other ways to use the outdoor classroom, but one option might be to harvest the fruit and use it in the school or give it to food shelves.

The physical work to install the classroom was, at times, challenging, students said, especially when the sun peeked out from behind the clouds.

“We were sweating so much,” Madison C. said. But ultimately, they said they enjoyed being outside and putting together a new place to hold class.

Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Jacqueline Anderson as a fourth grader.