Willett Community Hopes to Bear Fruit with Their Labor

With rakes, shovels and a can-do attitude, dozens of students, parents and staff at Attleboro's  took part in their own Big Dig on Saturday morning. 

The group, along with other members of the community, created the beginning of what will become a community garden. A small team of parents and teachers, with support from Principal Catherine Zinni, planted their idea for a community garden a few months ago. After getting the okay from a very excited School Department, the team began to plan. 

Margie Kelley-Fitzpatrick, a Willett mom, came up with the idea of a community garden.

"My goal and vision for this is driven by my feelings and sense that kids need to have more life skills around daily living," Kelley-Fitzpatrick said. "Empowering themselves so that they know where food comes from and knowing what you can get from your labor. For me, the future is knowing the past and learning how to get back to the basics."

The group of teachers, parents and students got right down to the basics of what it takes to grow fruits and vegetables and learned a few lessons along the way. One student asked what he should do with the worm he found in the dirt. Another helped to measure the distance between one end of the garden box to the other.

The goal behind the garden is not only community involvement, but it is a way to help feed Attleboro's hungry by supplying some of the grown fruits and vegetables to the local food bank.

Another goal is to educate students by adding some element of the garden into the curriculum. The plan is to also partner with Attleboro High School's horticulture program.

Children learned an even greater lesson on Saturday morning that had nothing to do with academics, according to Zinni.

"They learned about being community activists," she said. "Kids can learn what it feels like to be a community contributor. This is responsible citizens of Attleboro doing this not for a prize, but for a feeling of internal goodness."

"The idea of volunteerism has to start early," said Jo-Ann Carlson, a first-grade teacher and one of the garden's organizers. 

Prinicpal Zinni stressed the Willett Way during the four-hour effort, which includes being positive and productive, safe and secure, kind and courteous and respectful and responsible.

"The Willett Way should be the way of the world," Zinni quipped.