AUGUSTA — Though temperatures were high, students from Bracken County High School refused to let that deter them from helping out the Augusta Mains-Quinlin Veterans of Foreign Wars post on Thursday.
Several students, all part of the BCHS Landscape Management class taught by Sarah Rice, arrived on a school bus driven by Bracken County Superintendent Jeff Aulick at 11:30 a.m. and immediately began working on pulling old flowers, weeds and trimming bushes at the post on Elizabeth Street.
Bailie Mastin, BCHS junior, stepped off the bus with papers in hand and began giving orders out to the rest of the students who were crowded around her.
“We need to pull all of the Marigolds up first, before we do anything else,” she said to the waiting students. “Go around the bushes, around the memorial and under the sign — we need to pull all of that up first and then get to mulching.”
The students followed her lead and began working. While one student trimmed hedges around the building, the others worked together to pull out the old flowers and weeds around the memorial.
Mastin said there was a lot of work involved in their morning.
“We’re landscaping for the VFW,” she said. “We’re pulling up old flowers, planting new mums, mulching and trimming bushes. We’re just trying to get it ready for fall.”
According to Mastin, the idea to assist the VFW came about because students in the Future Farmers of America program at BCHS wanted to be more involved in the community.
“We want to do more activities to benefit our community and we thought this would be a good one,” she said. “We’re more than happy to come out and help. We want our community to look nice.”
Gavin Hitch, BCHS sophomore, said he was grateful to be able to help.
“We’re just pulling out the old mums and planting new ones,” he said. “We’re trying to make everything nice and neat. I’m grateful to be able to help do some of this — we just want to make the memorial and grounds to look nice.”
BCHS Principal Jamey Johnson said he believed the project was a great thing for the kids to do.
“It’s a great project,” he said. “What better community service project than to honor our veterans. It’s something these kids enjoy. They’re getting hands on experience and they’re serving their community.”
Aulick assisted with the cleanup of the grounds during the day and praised the student’s efforts.
“This is a project the kids came up with last year,” he said. “They wanted to continue working with a community partner this year. They want to give back to those who have sacrificed so much and the VFW is the best place for that. The memorial has a sign that says ‘Honor the dead by serving the living’ and that’s their purpose — to serve and to honor.”
The students were at the VFW for about two hours.
