At left, project volunteer Arica Altobello, Lakeview Elementary student Sadie Scott, and volunteer Emily Scannell stop to pose for a photo while working in the school’s garden in Negaunee. Altobello and Scannell are active participants in the Lakeview Garden Committee Farm to School programs.(Courtesy photo)

By Journal Staff

NEGAUNEE — Anyone at Lakeview Elementary School will be able to grow help in the garden.

The Lakeview Garden Committee, chaired by Negaunee School’s Speech Pathologist Sarah Weaver, is making the Elementary School’s vegetable gardens and its Farm to School programs accessible to all students.

The

project will provide paths to the garden beds that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The initial work was completed last Saturday with the help of the Lions Clubs of District 10 and members of the LGC,

“We are proud to be able to come back and help with this phase of the project,” Lions District 10 Governor Dan Perkins reflects, “When we built these 20 garden beds with the Lakeview Garden Committee this spring it was always our intention to make them fully accessible for everyone.”

Negaunee Public School’s Superintendent, Dan Skewis personally spent a day cutting the sod for the paths in preparation for the project.

“The ADA pathways were designed with a special feature,” Skewis said. “The 1100 paving bricks that line the paths were salvaged from the floor of the old Negaunee High School and now that living history is represented here.”

Lions District 10 Hunger Chair Gary Perala said the project was not a small one. “It was done with a strong collaboration of partners,” Perala said. “We had a number of Lions Clubs represented here today as well as teachers, students, and community members here to work. We dug and moved soil from the wide pathways surrounding the gardens, we moved 90,000 pounds of 3FA crusher fines in from the parking lot through the halls of the school in wheel barrows, built, leveled, and compacted 250 feet of pathway and set the pavers as edge boarders. A steady flow of local volunteers made this project possible.”