Planting seeds at Sorensen
Photos: LOREN BENOIT/Press Sorensen Magnet School fifth-graders, from left, Isabella Burley, Mirra Lenelliott and Emily Smith paint wood blocks for the Coeur d’Alene Seed Sharing Library True to Seed program Thursday morning. The blocks will help prop up seed packets for display inside library shelves.
Decorated wood blocks line a class counter Thursday morning at Sorensen Magnet School.
LOREN BENOIT/Press Sorensen Magnet School fifth-grader Austin Frosberg cleans a table Thursday morning after paining wood blocks displays for the Coeur d’Alene Seed Sharing Library True to Seed program.
Nathan Edmonds and Wyatt Matthews teamed up Thursday to paint the ultimate carrot-mato stand.
All the fifth-grades from Sorensen Magnet School of Arts and Humanities sat down for an hour to paint small stands for the True to Seed seed bank at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library. The stands will go in drawers and help prop up seed packets.
“I’m doing a big tomato with little carrots around it and he’s doing a big carrot with little tomatoes around it,” Nathan said. “It’s cool they give out free seeds and we get to paint little things that will help them and people will get to see them.”
“Yeah, I like this project,” Wyatt chimed in. “It’s a cool opportunity to help out with our community and help the environment.”
Jessica Mannon, the founder of True to Seed, said she wanted to bring kids into the community project and thought this would be a great way to do just that.
During class Thursday, Mannon showed the fifth-graders what different seeds looked like and gave each student their own pumpkin seeds to plant later this summer. Then she gave a little tutorial about what the seed library is and how people use it.
“Hopefully this will inspire these kids and maybe spark an interest in gardening, seed collection and sustainability,” she said.
Manon added True to Seed is looking for volunteers and is hosting a seed-swap at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library March 11. For more information, people can send an email to truetoseed@gmail.com.
Fifth-grade teachers Katie Palmer and Crystal Bain said they were excited to bring the project to their kids.
Bain explained their classes take a trip to the library every month anyway to get books for book reports, and now the kids will get to see their own work at the library, too.
“It’s nice for the kids to actually do art that will go out into the world instead of just keeping it here,” Palmer added. “I bet a lot of these kids will use the seed library now when they wouldn’t have before.”
On the other side of the art room, Lance Emry and Austin Forsberg were collaborating on a stand with a tree and flower garden on it.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Lance said as he carefully painted flowers onto the wood block. “We get to be with friends and work together. I like working with my friends.”