23 Mar 2018 School gardens: Conway Regional Women’s Council provides grants

Posted at 2:41 PMh in Health & Beauty by

Students at Bob and Betty Courtway Middle School in Conway were “Loving LIFE” with teachers and representatives of Home Depot and Conway Regional Health System after building four garden raised beds on campus. The Conway Regional Women’s Council awarded GT teacher Monica Flowers $953 to purchase the materials for the beds and Home Depot employees helped students with the construction. (Sonja J. Keith photo)

Conway students are learning about healthy food choices firsthand by growing vegetables at their school.

Monica Flowers, a gifted and talented teacher at Bob Courtway Middle School, applied for a teacher’s grant from the Conway Regional Women’s Council. She was awarded $953 last fall to add four raised beds at the school. Students worked in two raised beds last year.

Sixth-grader Madison Long said through her classroom experience, she learned how to create a garden. “I think it’s helping us to learn about how to garden,” said Madison Long. “It helped last year to plant vegetables and flowers.”

Sixth-grader Richard Carrasco also noted that building a garden is not hard and he thought the school garden was a good learning experience. “It gives us an opportunity to learn how we get our food at the supermarket,” he said. “I didn’t know there were a lot of vegetables you could grow that would survive through the winter.”

Madison was appreciative of the teacher’s grant that made the raised garden beds possible. “It was a really good idea that she got this grant to put in this garden,” she said. “It will give all of our GT class an opportunity to learn about how to plant gardens.”

The Conway Regional Women’s Council awarded 11 grants totaling about $6,800 to area schoolteachers to support child wellness and fitness initiatives during the 2017-18 school year.

“I am very proud to see the impact the Conway Regional Women’s Council is making on the health of our children through our Teacher’s Grant program,” said Dot Welch, associate director of the Conway Regional Health Foundation. “The leadership and dedication shown by this group of women is awesome. They truly care about our community.”

This is the third year for the grant program which is available to schools within the Conway Regional service area (Faulkner, Cleburne, Perry, Conway and Van Buren counties). It offers PreK-12th grade educators financial support for innovative classroom programs promoting physical activity, good nutrition and/or personal wellness.

The grants stem from the council’s emphasis in 2015 on childhood obesity awareness and prevention. Since its inception, the women’s council has awarded $17,298 in grants.

The women’s council received $3,200 in donations through the Annual Arkansas Give Day, held last spring, and a matching grant from Central Arkansas Pediatrics, to help fund the program. The remaining funds represent proceeds from the annual Dazzle Daze fundraiser, planned by the women’s council.

Grants for other school gardens were also awarded to Conway educators Amanda Krell (Carolyn Lewis Elementary School in Conway) and Nicole Loftis (Ida Burns Elementary School).

The women’s council is gearing up for its next grant cycle. For more information about the grant program, contact the Conway Regional Marketing and Foundation Office at 501.513.5771, email [email protected] or visit conwayregional.org/womenscouncil.

Sonja Keith
Latest posts by Sonja Keith (see all)