JOYCE — Two North Olympic Peninsula schools, Crescent School in Joyce and Blue Heron Middle School in Port Townsend, earned Ocean Guardian School grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this year.
It’s the second year Crescent School has earned the grant, said fifth-grade teacher Barb Silva, who headed the school’s project.
The school earned the $4,000 grant for its work on a 14,400-square-foot garden, which was harvested for the first time this year.
The goal of the garden was to get the students excited and to give them something hands-on to work on, she said.
This fall, elementary students celebrated the harvest with a Stone Soup celebration. Every elementary and preschool student helped gather veggies from the garden.
All students helped add their veggies to a large cooking pot, and the cafeteria staff cooked stone soup for school lunch. Staff and students plan on providing more vegetables for the school cafeteria, she said.
Blue Heron Middle School earned the grant to support watershed restoration activities.
Those activities help students understand how they can make a positive impact on watershed restoration and salmon habitat, according to a news release.
The school also earned a $4,000 grant.
Grant amounts range from $1,000 to $4,000 per school depending on the project and available funding.
This is the second year of Ocean Guardian School programming in Pacific Northwest.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
