Fifth-grade teachers Kim Mullen and Vickie Sawmiller see to it that the Wapakoneta Middle School's landscaping includes plenty of flowers.
The two have been volunteering their time to do so for the past four years. Several years back, a new wing was added to the middle school, closing off a courtyard area.
"It was kind of overgrown and stuff, you know, the bushes were, so we just wanted to make it look a lot nicer, especially being outside our rooms,” Sawmiller said. “I like things to look nice."
The courtyard, as well as the front of the building near the six pillars of character rocks, feature flowers of varying colors. The teachers plant both perennials and annuals."We both enjoy doing landscaping type-things and flowers, so we kind of just took that on,” Mullen said.
The courtyard has become a place for the fifth graders to go outside and read or work on projects. The sixth and seventh graders are on another side of the building, but even they have started to take notice of it.
See Tuesday's paper for the full story.