Growing Hearts and Minds… and Gardens!

A Great Hearts Academy, Maryvale Prep, was awarded $5,000 from The Neighborhood Grant through the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation.  This grant enabled Maryvale Prep to build a school garden on its campus, helping students learn agriculture skills and how to care for the Earth.  This garden will also bring natural beauty to the campus which is located on Camelback Road in the Maryvale neighborhood.

Maryvale Prep is a tight-knit community serving over 940 students in grades K-12 under the leadership of the lower school Headmaster, Dr. Crystal Cruz, and the upper school Headmaster, Rachel Mercado. Last year, Maryvale Prep celebrated its first graduating class with a 100% graduation rate. All the graduates were accepted into college with more than $1.5 million awarded in scholarships. Earlier this year, its tackle football program brought home a CAA Division State Championship win.

Biology teacher and coach, Mr. Tom Barringer, serves as the project faculty advisor and leading the garden program. Through the grant, Barringer began the process of planning and creating this functional garden on campus, but there was one key component missing. He needed more manpower, and a lot of it in order to make this vision a reality.  Without strong backs and helping hands, the garden was little more than raw materials, supplies, and the dream of what it could be.

This is where Grand Canyon University, who partners with Habitat for Humanity, stepped in to help by not only donating the much-needed manpower, but the additional materials to build out the garden beds.  On February 4^th, 2023, the large crew of volunteers went to work and turned the idea of a school garden into reality.

The remaining dollars from The Neighborhood Grant will be used to purchase seeds, succulents, and additional materials to maintain the gardens. Mr. Barringer plans on incorporating the gardens into his lesson plans in the coming year.

We would like to express our utmost gratitude to Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, GCU, and Habitat for Humanity for your generosity and fortitude to help bring this school garden to our great-hearted students at Maryvale Prep.

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