Grant seeding more sowing and reaping at Chatham Central
BEAR CREEK — The infusion of green into the green thumbs at Chatham Central High School could put greens on the tables of folks who sure could use some.
The North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission has awarded a $5,000 grant to Chatham Central. Chris Hart, the Chatham Central teacher who oversees the award-winning agricultural-education program at the school, said he will use the money to equip students to turn the courtyard there on campus into an edible landscape. That means Hart’s students would grow fresh fruits and vegetables. It’d be food that could feed needy families in the Chatham Central community; food that Chatham Central culinary-arts students in teacher Everett Goldston’s classes could prepare for the school’s staff members on Tasty Tuesdays.
Or if, say, Dr. Karla Eanes, who is the assistant principal at Chatham Central, felt like having a vine-ripened tomato, then all she'd have to do is push from her desk and just walk outside to pluck one.
Chatham Central students Andrew Hicks and Dylan Lee have been spending time in Chatham Central’s greenhouses getting ready for the school’s spring plant sale. They’re high school seniors, but Hart’s class affords them opportunities to play in the dirt like they did in elementary school. That said, they’re rather hardcore about their horticulture. They take it seriously. Yet neither plan on pursuing careers in agriculture. Hart said he’s OK with that, because part of his deal is teaching students the value hard work wherever they work.
“Horticulture, really, it’s a great learning experience,” Hicks said. “It’s a pretty rugged class.”
Eanes said Chatham Central students are the type of individuals who possess a certain industriousness. For example, Lee wants to work in heavy machinery. He said he likes the sheer mass and power of dump trucks. Eanes said Lee’s liable to own a fleet of dump trucks someday, because he’s got great drive; the young man’s not scared to work.
“My students are passionate, and they have such an entrepreneurial spirit,” Eanes said. “They discover what they love to do and set their sights on how to turn that passion into their career.”
Published March 10, 2018