Manatee Peace Garden
The Manatee Peace Garden made its appearance on campus at the end of the 2010-2011 school year bringing beauty and creativity to the school playground yard. However, this labor of love took many hours over nearly six months of designing, tracing, cutting, sanding, and painting. Conceived by Club parents Bridget Bishop and Betsy Dessauer, and funded by the PTA Garden Club, the execution was completed by volunteers and students under the guidance and diligence of Club parent Lizzie Glick and long-time faculty Cynthia Schwane.
Lizzie Glick spearheaded the project by designing and tracing the flowers onto plywood and then finding countless helpers that assisted in making the flowers into what they are today. The flower elements (petals,leaves and stem) were traced onto plywood and cut out with jigsaws. They were then sanded and primed multiple times, to protect them from the elements and prepare them for the children to paint. The pieces were then partially assembled into two main parts (stem and bloom) for ease in painting and attaching to the school fence.
There are 21 flowers on the fence - one from each classroom, completed by the students during their week in art class. The process developed by Mrs. Schwane gave all students the opportunity to create a flower design. The classmates voted on the winning design for each class. The chosen "designer" then assembled a team to help him/her execute the design in the much larger format of the flower. With Lizzie and Cynthia's help each design team completed their flower during art class and in many cases before, during and after school.
Many thanks to the other volunteers involved: Bart and Fiona Moyers, Martha Zeagler, Tammy Wells-Angerer, Erica Luetzow, Will Coward, Beth Yoder, Sara Vandergrift, Susan George, Nathan Herrick, Ragini Gupta, Chantel Warman, and Jean Leider, in addition to all the children at Club who are responsible for the impressive display and lasting legacy for Club Boulevard Humanities Magnet!
