A group of Greenscape team members and North Carolina State University students showed up on a rainy Saturday in August to donate their time in building the KinderGarden at Root Elementary in Raleigh, N.C. The garden includes a bird sanctuary, pollinator garden and interactive learning space. The volunteers also showed how the landscape industry can serve the community in a way that draws attention to how essential landscaping and horticulture is in creating healthy communities.

The result of the volunteer's work is an engaging space that provides the opportunity for students to learn in a natural setting.

Just before the start of school this fall, Greenscape Inc., a provider of commercial landscape management services and design/build construction, joined landscape and horticulture students from North Carolina State University, and supporters of the Come Alive Outside• project to implement an outdoor learning environment at Root Elementary in Raleigh, N.C.

The design for the garden was created by landscape and horticulture students at the university as part of a design challenge sponsored by Come Alive Outside. Four teams of U.S. college students worked with public schools in their areas to design interactive learning spaces. The N.C. State students worked with parents and teachers at Root Elementary to come up with a design that would engage the students' five senses as part of the learning process.

They were then charged with finding a way to make the garden a reality. Four Greenscape team members visited the school during the week prior to do the heavy prep work for the garden.

"I was a judge for the competition and was so impressed with the work done by the students that I approached the N.C. State team to see how the Green Team could help implement their design," said Daniel Currin, president and CEO of Greenscape Inc. "These landscape students did a phenomenal job working with parents and teachers to pull together the plan for a 5-senses garden that will give the students at Root Elementary a great outdoor learning environment."

The Come Alive Outside Design Challenge is a program that helps to reconnect children with nature and attract more young people into meaningful careers in the landscape profession. The program creates the opportunity for college, high school, elementary and pre-school students to work together with landscape professionals to design and build engaging outdoor learning environments at schools and childcare facilities.

"I see this garden becoming a place that empowers children to engage with and influence the world they live in," said Leena McDonald, Greenscape intern and one of the N.C. State students who submitted the initial project design in the 2014 competition. "As a student, it's really exciting for me to share what I'm passionate about with younger learners. If this project proves to be successful, we can use what we've learned and replicate the project at another school, to the benefit of even more students!"