Seed project grows fund

GREENFIELD - Students at the Greenfield Center School are gathering seed money that will blossom next winter into a skating and skiing program.

The Seed Store Project is selling 3,000 packets of seeds for $3 each to benefit the winter program in which younger children skate and older students ski once a week for a month.

Packets of cleverly-named seeds and colorful labels designed by students fill bins at the school, one of the places the seeds are sold; they can also be found in several Greenfield businesses. Some parents even sell seeds at work or in their neighborhoods.

"We wanted a fund-raising project that was different," said Sally A. Freeman-Hawks, creator and coordinator of the Seed Store Project and parent of a sixth-grader at the school. "We were looking for a project that fit the school, what we're about and the values we're trying to instill in the children - a program about growth and nurturing."

"Our children are like our little seeds," added Terry Kayne, an interim principal.

The seed program began six years ago, and each year begins with the bulk purchase of mostly organic seeds from a Maine company. Children help weigh or count seeds for the packets - a lesson in mathematics. Then they draw pictures on pieces of white paper a quarter the size of an 8½- by 11-inch sheet. Freeman-Hawks, a retired University of Massachusetts administrator, scans the pictures into her computer and generates vibrantly colorful labels for the front of the packets. A label on the back gives child-friendly descriptions of the plants that will grow from the seeds and directions for planting.

Children can draw as many pictures for the seed packets as they want. "We want every child (from kindergarten through grade eight) represented," Kayne said.

Freeman-Hawks provides examples of what the plant looks like, but not all the drawings end up depicting the actual plants. "Bumble bee sweet basil" offers a variety of depictions of bees rather than basil, and labels for "purr-fect provider green bush beans" bear a selection of felines. "Year of the ox Chinese forget-me-nots" boast oxen pictures while some "queen's crown jewel mix nasturtium" have pictures not of edible flowers but of the headgear of royalty.

Other seeds for sale include "rooster's crow bush wax beans," "goddess of dawn Aurora marigolds," "twinkle phlox," "sweet Raggedy Ann snap peas," "Detroit Tiger short top beets," "orange sunburst Inca zinnia" and "bullfrog green flat leaf parsley."

If the seeds were simply labeled wax beans, snap peas, beets, marigolds or any other common name - children would be likely simply to draw the fruit or vegetable produced by the seed. The creative names Freeman-Hawks gives them with some input from students and parents "entice (children) to let their creativity flow," Kayne said.

Teachers let their students use their creativity to interpret the plant they selected to draw. "They do it a million different ways," Freeman-Hawks said. "We let randomness rule."

By the time the children finish their drawings, all the seed packets have labels even though some years a certain seed - like a sunflower - seems more popular.

Freeman-Hawks saves the children's original artwork and gives the pictures to them for graduation. "It's a wonderful developmental lesson," she said, noting that though their artistic ability matures through their years at the school their style remains consistent.