By Andrew Corselli, Staff Writer
Boy Scouts from Pack 89 and Girl Scouts from Troops 261 and 1052 teamed up with the Outdoor Beautification Committee at Hillsborough Elementary School on May 7 for the annual spring cleanup.
Karen Briegs, who was appointed the chairwoman of the Outdoor Beautification Committee at HES in September 2009 by the Home and School Association, had been staging spring and fall cleanups at the school for years. When she was given the title, though, the HES parent and avid gardener started working even harder to make the school grounds an aesthetic masterpiece.
Ms. Briegs held the first official cleanup one month after earning her title and has been organizing two per year, one in October and one in late April/early May, on a shoestring budget of $400 per year.
For this spring cleanup Ms. Briegs received a donation from Ash’s Flower Farm, located at 135 Route 206, which allowed her to buy more than $400 of plant material for $175. The discount helped the team to weed and clean out the flower beds, transplant overgrown plants and haul away more than 15 bags of yard waste in three hours, Ms. Briegs said in an e-mail.
”We also planted over 60 new perennials to continue to work on our multi-year gardening plan,” Ms. Briegs said in an e-mail. “We put in asters, day lilies, catmint, decorative grasses and lambs ear.”
In addition to work on that Saturday morning, the Scouts built two planter boxes to replace ones that had deteriorated over the years.
”Year after year the Scouts have donated their time and done some really backbreaking work to make this school beautiful, and we are starting to see the fruits of all of that labor,” Ms. Briegs said. “The gardens help make HES a nice place to come to every day for teachers and students.”
The 29 volunteers, which included Scouts and their family members, performed more than 55 hours of work on Saturday. In addition to Ms. Briegs, donating time and energy were Brynne Briegs, Carly Tarnoski, the Meditz family, David Cutts, Brian Crathamel, Alex, Madeline and Keith Mindish, Julie Lashen, the Vecchio family, Evan and Jessica Ngo, Jon and Josh Norbut, Erica Arendas, April Ravaioli, Gaby Valdivia, Ethan and Bill Ries, and Kim and Stephen Borini.
Anyone interested in contributing plants to the Beautification Committee’s work is welcome to contact Ms. Briegs at [email protected].

