Thinking spring
Students making sure flowers ready when winter ends DUNBAR TWP. – It may be the holiday season when the flowers of choice are likely the poinsettia or amaryllis, but when the snow clears it will be the geranium and a variety of other flowers that will decorate local gardens. And, several local students are making sure those flowers are ready for delivery when spring arrives.
The home management class at Connellsville Area Career and Technical Center has partnered with Oglevee Limited to practice their life skills in preparation of entering the job market and living independently after they leave school.
The task for the students, said Scott Sterling, Oglevee general manager, is to assemble growing pots and put them into individual trays.
“We used to do this ourselves, but it is labor-intensive and expensive,” he said. “It is a real money-saver to have the students here.”
Class teacher Melissa Stoots said this is the second year of the partnership, and while it is beneficial to the business, it has allowed the young people to practice what to most is routine, but for these students, more complicated.
“They are learning to stay on task; it is good for hand-and-eye coordination and they are learning to count,” she said.
In addition to their school responsibilities and working at Oglevees, the students also spend several hours each week at the City Church in Connellsville and Church of Christ in Connellsville Township, honing their cleaning skills that are also taught during class time.
Part of their course work, too, said Stoots, is meal planning and grocery shopping as the students are responsible for preparing their lunches in advance of traveling to their various job sites.
“The kids love coming to Oglevees,” said Stoots. “Anymore, they come in a get busy right away.”
The students are taking part in the very beginning stages of the flower growing process with preparing the pots in which the cuttings will be eventually planted.
“We are the very, very beginning of the chain,” said Sterling. “We will provide (the cuttings) to a wholesale grower and they grow it and then sell it to some retail chain or store.”
While the planting season for geraniums or other flowers does not begin until late May locally, those in the Southern states will begin filling their gardens in February, said Sterling, adding that recently a shipment made its way to Jamaica, where the growing season is about to begin.
Stoots, meanwhile, said the partnership with Oglevees has been a rewarding opportunity for the students.
In addition to being a part of the first phase of the flower-growing process, they have received tours to better understand what the next steps are after the pots are assembled and stacked.
“They’ve been treated very well here,” said Stoots. “We very much appreciate what they have done for us.”