Merrimac teacher wins award for garden

Merrimac Community School and First Grade Teacher Jamie Christianson, have been awarded $2,000 by the Wisconsin Retired Educators’ Association (WREA) Foundation. The award was given for the school’s “MCS Community Garden” project. Merrimac is a moderately high poverty area and a food desert. There are no grocery stores in the town, the nearest is over 10 miles away. The school garden and orchard serve as a place not only for education, but as a source of local produce. Students plan and plant the garden in the spring. Volunteers care for the garden during the summer with the produce available to the school families and community. Come fall, the students use the late season fruits and Negetables in cooking projects. Teachers use the garden for a wide variety of learning opportunities from life cycles to nutrition. The garden is a long-standing all-school project that connects students, families, educators, and community. The funds will be used for implementing improvement and continued progress on their existing school/community garden and orchard. Supplies will be purchased for a folk-art style fence, designed and built by the students. The fence will be an art destination for travelers, community spotlight, and wildlife deterrent. The financial award is part of an annual “Challenge Award” program sponsored by the WREA Foundation. It recognizes ten schools each year, in each of the five statewide regional districts that comprise WREA. From year to year, the awards are rotated from elementary schools, to middle schools, to high schools, every third year. Merrimac Community School is one of the five innovative elementary school projects to be awarded $2,000 this year, for a total of $10,000 donated by the WREA Foundation.