Revitalizing Indianapolis Inner-city School

The students of IPS 67 in Indianapolis felt the love, too. Walking by the volunteers as they took recess, kids asked about the fish, frogs, and turtles with smiles on their faces.

In August, Automatic Irrigation Supply Company donated pond, lighting supplies, design and installation work as part of a unique charitable experience in Indianapolis, participating in a landscape revitalization project at a local elementary school.

Landscape contractor Earth-Wood Arts offered free design, labor and gravel to get the project started. This contribution blossomed into donations of tons of stone, plant life, mulch, water and more from numerous contractors and other businesses in the area. When project coordinator Maria Crutchfield came to AIS seeking help, Rick Hughes jumped on board to take the project to the next level.

Hughes worked with local water features representative Trent Caldwell to secure donated pond supplies for this project, including a medium pond kit (with underlayment fabric, rubber pond liner, skimmer, and pump), an IonGen algae defense system, Kichler outdoor LED accent lights, and of course the required manual labor with plenty of shovels and landscape tools.

 
Together they devoted time and supplies to help design and build the eco-education pond with the other volunteers. The efforts combined to create a pond that serves to beautify the school, but also utilizes green-friendly products for minimal energy use and waste.

Earth-Wood Arts worked with Automation Irrigation Supply to secure pond supplies and lighting. Together they devoted time and supplies to help design and build the eco-education pond with the other volunteers.

IPS 67 Stephen Foster School is an inner-city elementary on the urban westside of Indianapolis. All of the students receive financial assistance for either lunches, textbooks or both. After a year of renovations, the school was opening its doors again this past month.

A local action team called Indy 68 spearheaded an effort to revamp the garden area, which at the time was little more than a weed-filled pit. Beginning with a vision, the volunteers quickly found support from numerous local businesses to turn their vision into action.

With all the support Indy 68 and IPS 67 received, they were able to not only have a new pond garden, but also a rock garden, and landscaping around the entire school.

''There was a lot of buzz in the immediate neighborhood," said Crutchfield. "People have been talking about how beautiful it is both at night and during the day.''

In economic times like these, we can feel fortunate and blessed to be in a position to give back to the community. The volunteers put in the time, effort, and resources to make the garden at IPS 67 possible.