JMU students help city school kick off spring

To kick off the first day of spring, a group of James Madison University students and their faculty mentor will work in gardens 12:45-1:45 p.m. Wednesday, March 20, at Bluestone Elementary School on Garbers Church Road in Harrisonburg. 

Amy Goodall and her students built the gardens at the city's newest school a year ago. The nine raised beds feature vegetables, fruits, herbs and native flowers. In addition to hosting plants, the gardens are teaching tools where elementary students gain an appreciation for healthy eating, increased exercise, and making observations of species that visit the gardens, including pollinators. 

The garden at Bluestone Elementary continues an eight-year collaboration between city elementary schools and Goodall, an associate professor in the School of Integrated Sciences who teaches in the geographic science program at JMU. Goodall and her students have helped build and maintain gardens at city elementary schools since 2012, when the Keister Elementary School garden was developed.
 

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NOTE: Please check with Principal Anne Lintner about getting photos of Bluestone Elementary children.