Almost Famous

Marcos Santiago,

President

With a bridge in place, what could we do next to further enhance the garden? The cabinet met to discuss this matter, and settled on seeing if Mr. Witmer would like his students to construct other signature features for the garden. A pergola and an informational kiosk at our gate would be perfect. With a nice chunk of money raised through bake sales and our farm stands, we were able to purchase the lumber, and enlist the help of Mr. Witmer once again. We also expanded the garden by eight feet along the western edge. We were too hemmed in, especially around the barbecue. So, we constructed a new outer fence, and did away with the old one. We were able to expand our picnic area, add a long narrow bed in the lower part of the garden for raspberry bushes, and add four new 4 x 4 raised beds, and along 3 x 20 raised bed along the fence in the back. We were also able to better incorporate our three compost bins into the layout of the garden.

This was a particularly busy year, as our club participated in an Environmental exchange with Russian high school students. Seven of our members traveled to Saratov, Russia in November, and the Russian students stayed with us in April. We kept up our frenetic pace of hosting parties with Arista, and put on an Earth Day like no other. Of course, thanks to the organizational talents of our duly reelected President, Marcos Santiago, the club stayed focused, and had fun like no other year. A large number of students made this year an outstanding one for the club, but no one deserves more credit than Alex Feliz, who became a driving force in the garden. Filling the void left by David Mercado and John Nieves, both of whom graduated the year before, he continued to provide the muscle behind the vision, effectively leading other students in creating new benches, building raised beds, and constructing our new fence. Besides these three, special recognition goes to Tyrone Acosta, Joyes Baby, Anastasia and Evagelia Bakoulis, Christina Braca, Malyn and Nara Chhua, Felix Ciprian, Joseph Gonzalez, Liza Kempton, Sara Kempton, Fakhar and Hifza Khan, Elizabeth Kim, Elaine Langer, Elizabeth Mercado, Osvaldo Montas, Rosanmi Morel, Elizabeth Osewalt, Omar Peralta, Kim Sales, , James Underdue, Engels Valenzuela, and Luda Vinnick.

Also view these pages in the 1997-8 photo album!

• Work and Play in the Enchanted Garden
• Smiles All Around
• One Last Time