Several schools in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District benefitted from the generosity of the community recently.
In early November, employees from Home Depot in Santa Maria spent a day at Alvin School doing projects to spruce up the campus. The Home Depot volunteers dug out the garden area near the front office, built planter boxes, and replanted the garden. They donated all the materials and plants, as well. The volunteers also painted two tiger murals on the school walls.
Arellanes Junior High School received a $1,000 grant from SESLOC Federal Credit Union to purchase ChromeBook computers. The additional ChromeBooks will allow students in Rachel Itzstein’s English classes to collaborate on digital projects. SESLOC doubled the normal $500 grant because Arellanes was the first Northern Santa Barbara County school to apply.
Adam School recently received a $5,000 grant from the Orfalea Foundation to improve the school’s vegetable garden. The Farm To Fork project will increase the size of the garden so that veggies can be grown and served in the salad bar in the school cafeteria. The goal is to involve families in the garden and to increase the frequency of classroom visits to the garden for lessons in math, science, health, and nutrition.
This article appears in Dec 3-10, 2015.
