VERO BEACH – Rosewood Magnet Elementary School is searching for parents – and students – who don’t mind getting their hands dirty and their brow sweaty beautifying the campus.
“I have a dream for our courtyard,” Principal Deborah Dillon said – that the landscaping be more lush, the picnic tables improved and planter-benches be installed.
With a $2,500 grant from Home Depot, Principal Dillon expects her dream and much more than that to come true.
“We’re excited,” she said, noting that the school will be able to do more with the larger-than-requested grant from the home improvement store.
Sheila May, a cashier at Home Depot, is the Team Home Depot captain in charge of organizing the beautification day Thursday.
She plans on having between 20 and 30 fellow employees at the school between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. helping to clean up, plant more than 350 flowers and bushes, and trim back the pine trees.
May likened what Home Depot has planned to “Better Homes and Gardens”-type landscaping, referring to the popular magazine.
Marigolds, impatiens, Mexican heather, Lantana, and Joseph’s coat’s are all on the delivery list for the school.
“There’s a lot of guidelines we had to follow,” May said of selecting plants. They can’t attract bees or be poisonous – to name a couple restraints.
Dillon is hoping Rosewood families will come out and spend a few hours working beside the Home Depot volunteers.
As a magnet school, parents and guardians must log at least 10 hours of volunteer service at the school, Dillon said.
“Our parents far exceed that,” the principal noted.
She said that the PTA and All-Pro Dads groups are helping to organize volunteers and involvement on Thursday and added that local Girl Scout Troops, too, are expected to help.
For the young children who come to help, Dillon said there would be simple, safe tasks for them to perform while the adults perform the heavy lifting.
Also helping with the workday are Dunkin’ Donuts and Little Caesar’s Pizza. Dunkin’ Donuts is providing doughnuts for the volunteers for breakfast, while Little Caesar’s is providing pizzas for lunch.
The PTA is handling the beverages.
Along with receiving numerous plants and bags of mulch, Rosewood Magnet will also receive a 5-gallon can of paint it can use to touchup areas throughout the school that need patching, May said.
Anyone interested in helping out with the workday Thursday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. can contact Principal Dillon at the school by calling (772) 564-3840 or showing up anytime Thursday.
Volunteers are asked to bring work gloves, any gardening tools they wish to use, and sunscreen. Hats, too, are recommended.
Rosewood Magnet Elementary School is located at 3850 16th St., Vero Beach.