Barren beds of dirt and weeds lay waiting to be filled with life. Together, the All May Survive Garden waited for the Science Explorer and Outdoors club to fill it’s empty beds with life and purpose.

    The Science Explorer and Outdoors club is responsible for growing and maintaining the T.A.M.S. Garden, which is located in the back of school in the opening behind the science hallway. The club meets once a week on Wednesdays in room 269.

    “When March gets here, we start prepping the garden, pulling the weeds and getting it prepared for the growing season,” Angela Hefley, the Science Explorer and Outdoors club sponsor, said. “So we’ll do one club meeting, one or two, where we’ll get the garden ready in March. Then we’ll have usually one or two planting days. Once that starts, we will go out every week or so to water it. In the summer, I will even have kids volunteer to come up to water it. Kids who are in summer school may water it, or I come up and water and take care of it.”

    The club was inspired by Dare To Care Day and wanted to do something that helped others at other times of the year.

    “One of my students had gone to Glade, which is a program summer camp that is sponsored by the Greater Ozarks Audubon Society, and they received a grant for going to glade,” Hefley said. “That grant sort of gave us the money. That was his project; he wanted to start a garden.”

    The club mostly ran off of donations. Students would bring what they wanted to plant, and Hefley would buy more things out of her pocket. 

   “I think it’s a cool community service type project that everyone in Science Club can participate in,” Senior Reid Holdman said. “It involves lots of different approaches to science as well. You kind of have to understand chemistry and biology a little bit and even just some old techniques, little tips and tricks you can get. I think it’s fun because it integrates lots of different aspects of science. No matter what you’re interested in, you can probably find something you like about it.”

    Holdman joined the club his sophomore year of high school.

     “I’m very passionate about science,” Holdman said. “Someday I’d like to major in some kind of scientific field in college. I just think it’s super cool and I enjoy it a lot. I want to get more time playing around with different concepts and different ideas.”

    Holdman’s family has grown flowers and vegetables in its own backyard.

    “My family’s always done gardening, so I’ve kind of grown up around that,” Holdman said. “So for that reason, I am a big proponent of gardening as part of science club.”

    Junior Alex Rapp has been a part of the Science Club since his freshman year. He did horticulture in middle school and his family owns a personal garden as well.

     “I enjoy being able to work with my hands and give back to the community,” said Alex Rapp.