Each day, Lindale students pass by a planter that up until this week had only one lonesome tree. Now, this planter is filled with colorful flowers planted by the life skill students of the high school.

“Mrs. Payne told us that if we wanted to put life back into the planter, that it was ours to do whatever we wanted to do,” life skill teacher Kristi Rozell said. “Creating new life in the planter made a lot of people happy.”

Life skill teachers Jan Simmons, Rozell and Gihan Boulus took the  students to Lowes to purchase plants that could survive in the indoor planter. They then went to lunch at McDonalds and came back to the school where they began planting.

“We got to take a trip out into the community and interact with people of the community,” Rozell said. “We got to learn about plants that we didn’t know about. They just got to be out and talk to new people.”

Student Lauren Abrameit enjoyed digging in the dirt and has continued to water the plants since the planter was filled. The students will continue to keep up with the plants and will fix anything that needs to be replaced.

“We are going to water the planter, and we are just going to keep it up,” Rozell said. “It is a great lesson in taking care of other things and learning daily jobs.”

The planter has not gone unnoticed by the students and faculty. Students like sophomore Hannah Knox noticed the new flowers as soon as they were planted and are thankful to the life skill students for creating a spot in the school that is pretty to look at and shows an appreciation for nature.

“I think it is really cool that the life skill kids planted flowers in the middle of the school,’ Knox said. “It seems like a good activity for them and it is nice to look at when I pass it throughout the day.”