The Sand Island Children’s Garden began in January of 1997 as a result of the development of the Ice House Performing Arts Center. On a vacant tract of city property along the river, a part of the Ice House group suggested a place for children and their families to visit while attending performances at the theater. The city’s Park and Recreation department was contacted and approval was granted. The city’s stipulation was that the garden be designed by the students.

The development of the land was researched by visiting children’s gardens nearby and through magazines, textbooks, and meetings with students. Students decided the areas that they wanted to see developed as permanent parts of the garden. When criterion for the garden was established, work began. Students made decisions measuring land, building a scale model in the classroom, designing, laying out the plan, sod cutting, digging, and planting. Students involved in this project (10^th, 11^th, and 12^th grade) determined places for new additions in the garden. Horticulture Vo-tech students raised the annuals planted.

Learning support students were the main task organizers, with cooperative input from regular education biology, geometry, English, and shop classes, as well as Vo-tech students. A partnership with the city Park and Recreation department assisted with delivery of mulch and shale–this partnership continues to this day.

Over the last three years, two fall work days were planned to prepare the garden for winter cutting back, mulching, pond prep--and up to three spring work days to clean and prepare the flower beds and pond. During summer months a posted schedule of workdays offer community service for any middle or high school student. Community members, some as regular visitors to the island, also participate. The local CAT program investigates our garden as well as the bike paths on the island for safe removal of poison ivy. The garden is 100% public and during summer months children and their parents are found reading in the tree house, winding along the pathways, looking for fish in the pond, or enjoying the birds, butterflies, and fragrant flowers. Weddings have been photographed on the bridge over the pond.

The students involved in this project have developed not only a sense of physical gardening with the rewards of accomplishment and beauty, but more importantly a sense of ownership in their community. They witness the relationship between work and a finished product, plus the relationship between an individual, the school, and the city. The students involved with this project, many of whom have never been to this part of the city, become active community members in helping to maintain the garden and visit often. They have developed team-building and cooperation skills in real life situations–situations that are not easily duplicated in the classroom. The students have come to realize that despite the hard work required on a day out of the classroom, it is something they want to be a part of, and willingly volunteer when workdays are scheduled.