Lacey Spring ES receives grant for outdoor classroom

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Fitted with its own wind turbine and using vegetables from the school garden for lunches, Lacey Spring Elementary School focuses heavily on a hands-on curriculum for its students.

Last week, the school announced it will receive grant funding to construct an outdoor classroom.

“Especially coming out of the pandemic, for a couple of years when our playgrounds were closed, what our kids were able to do to spend time in the arboretum, spend time in the garden, and now that we’ll be able to have a space out there where we’ll have an outdoor classroom, a place to take the kids to read. It’s just so beautiful up there,” 1st-grade teacher Phil Satolli said.

The $9,000 Bessie Bocock Carter Award was awarded through the Garden Club of Virginia and stems from years of partnership and projects between Lacey Spring and the Spotswood Garden Club.

Club members say it’s been exciting to watch the students’ interest in conservation grow.

“It’s a great concept and if we can instill an appreciation of nature and the need to conserve it then you know it’s gonna be a better world for all of us,” Co-Chair of the Spotswood Garden Club’s Conservation Committee Pat Harkins said.

The funds will go toward projects like the construction of benches from recyclable materials, and a gazebo-style building for classes to take place under.

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