Carol Neale and Deb Grimm from Laura B. Anderson Elementary will use $1,820 for their proposal, “Early Childhood Peace Garden.”

With the funds, they plan to create a peace garden, and they will use a friendship bench, raised garden beds, and plants to develop and nurture friendship skills. In the application, they wrote, “As we started the 2023-2024 school year, we received t-shirts that read, ‘Teach, Learn, Grow, Cultivate.’ Early Childhood students are the foundation for growing and cultivating lifelong learners. Through the garden, we will foster, nurture, and maintain a peaceful place for our students, our school community, and our families. This space will be a tool to foster greater awareness of the environment. They will learn a wide range of knowledge through the hands-on experiences of caring for and planting a garden, while developing and nurturing friendship skills. While working in the garden, our students will expand fine motor and gross motor skills. We want to place a friendship ‘buddy bench’ in this area. The bench will give students the opportunity to create friendships during unstructured recess time for children who feel they do not have friends. In this space, our expectations will be: show gratitude; help not hurt; create not destroy; be respectful in words and actions; and kindness to all. The lessons will be taught using our content standards of early childhood education. Success will be determined by students utilizing strategies for solving conflicts through compassion, communication, and friendship.”