By Sam Nathanson, Special Writer
To celebrate the culmination of several months of hard work and perseverance, the Project Green club at Hightstown High School held a ceremony on June 8 to commemorate breaking ground on the construction of a new Transition Garden.
According to Project Green member and HHS junior Jonathan Sheridan, the Transition Garden, which will be located in one of HHS’s enclosed courtyards, will eventually become a tool to increase environmental awareness in Hightstown and ultimately “bring the community together.”
”To me, the Transition Garden, other than it actually being a garden, is a way to reach out to people and try to get them to know about the environment more, because to me, the Transition Garden is a way to get people to be more environmentally conscious, not only in their own homes, but around the community and really get it out there. We want to try to be more environmentally conscious as a community,” Jonathan said.
Hightstown Mayor Steven Kirson, designers M.J. Mazur and Kin Andrews, Technology and Grants supervisor Patricia Phillips and biology teacher and Project Green advisor Gretchen Contreras were among those selected by the members of Project Green to ceremoniously break ground for the construction of the garden.
Although according to Jonathan, the event was initially forced inside due to a sudden rainstorm, the weather ultimately cleared up allowing the ceremony to be a success.
”The [HHS] Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) cooked a very delicious meal for everyone to eat, and then after thirty minutes, we moved the event outside where we had students from Project Green make speeches about the environment, the club and just Hightstown itself. After that, we had our five VIPs, including Hightstown’s Mayor Steven Kirson, come up and they actually broke the ground and it was a really cool moment,” Jonathan said. “After that, there was dessert, there were henna tattoos, there was even a fashion art exhibit and then live music played by Talinday, Miranda Contreras-Peterson, Caila Cabrera [and Natalie Ortega], and they sounded great. We also had a time capsule which was really cool.”
According to Project Green’s advisor Ms. Contreras, the Transition Garden wouldn’t be a reality without a “generous grant” that Project Green has received from the Frederick L. Hipp foundation.
”We submitted a grant proposal last year, which they funded for $10,000. The Transition Garden vision is to allow outdoor space for students to interact with nature,” Ms. Contreras said. “We envision maybe history classes going out there and learning what plants the colonists or Native Americans ate, art classes going out to sketch and English classes to write poetry or stories in an outdoor setting just to connect students more with nature.”
Ms. Contreras was given the opportunity to apply for the grant from the Frederick L. Hipp foundation after attending a grant writing workshop held by Ms. Phillips last year, and Ms. Phillips believes that Ms. Contreras’s hard work has been the driving force behind the success of this project.
”It’s amazing because you really have to have perseverance. It’s one thing to win the grant, but it’s another thing to then actually do what you said you’re going to do. So many people say they are going to do something, and sometimes it’s words and they don’t end up following through, so she really has perseverance. I’m astounded that [Ms. Contreras] has done so much in a year’s time and breaking the ground,” Ms. Phillips said. “She’s going to make I think it’s a third of an acre into something beautiful and I’m very appreciative to be even a part of this really. It’s kind of cool, isn’t it?”
After watching the plans for the Transition Garden develop over the past few months, HHS junior Tristan Duenas believes that the ground breaking ceremony was an important step for the successful future of Project Green.
”I think this garden is almost like a way to say that we can do it; that we can start something. It goes from we weren’t using this land to now we are, and now we have a way of maybe spreading the message and starting something more self-reliant and we don’t have to be dependent on everyone else, so it’s a good movement,” Tristan said.
According to Mayor Kirson, movements such as Project Green’s Transition Garden are spreading environmental awareness and setting a good example for the rest of the community.
”Effectively this is part of the community, and hopefully we can promote this and have more people get involve from the school and the surrounding community,” Mayor Kirson said. “It’s really educational and I think that through programs like this, people become aware of how important being green is, so I hope that this is a successful program in the future.”

