The Class of 2011 - Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns

How Does Your Middle School Garden Grow?
Quite well, if you’re Sleepy Hollow Middle
School, where students have been tending to an
herb garden, a “kitchen” garden that can provide
salads and vegetables, and even a certified butterfly
garden with great success.
The gardens, all located behind the Middle
School building, spent the spring sprouting
tomatoes, lettuces, arugula, peppers, peas, basil,
and other vegetables and herbs. In the fall,
pumpkins will be growing in the same spot.
It’s all part of an overall effort by the endlessly
active Environmental Action Club, which this
year alone has created the gardens, constructed
a NASA weather station, built bird feeders and
birdhouses, raised funds for the World Wildlife
Funding, turned off their lights for Earth Hour,
and learned about endangered tigers.
“The students are inspiring us, and care about
saving the environment,” said co-advisor Michael
Garguilo. “They introduce their own ideas for
projects and we often follow their lead.”
The butterfly garden, designed specifically to
attract butterflies with plants that include milkweed,
has been certified by the North American
Butterfly Association, which means that it provides
the resources necessary to help increase the
world’s population of butterflies. At the Middle
School garden, two monarch butterflies visit on
a regular basis.
Even though gardening returns students to
nature, they’re also assisted by some cool
modern-day gadgets. The kitchen garden, with
its pristine rows of vegetable plants, is watered by
an automatic watering system. The garden is also
“watched over” by a series of time-lapse video
cameras, purchased with a grant from the Foundation
for the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns.
Each green camera houses a memory card, which
can later be used on a computer to watch how
the garden has grown over time. These time-lapse
videos, said Mr. Garguilo, can be studied by students
in next year’s science courses and used in
a variety of interdisciplinary projects. Also with
funds from the Foundation, the school was able
to purchase tools and a shed, which have helped
students tend their gardens on a weekly basis.
The entire kitchen garden has been certified by
the National Wildlife Organization as a wildlife
habitat as well.
The NASA weather station, which was acquired
through a grant from the Candreva Environmental
Foundation, sits on the school roof
and permits NASA weather satellites to track
weather conditions in the region and compare
real-time weather with forecasts.
The work of the Environmental Action Club
culminated in the spring, when the students held
Green Week, an entire week devoted school-wide
to environmental awareness. The week started
with Animal Day, in which students were encouraged
to dress as their favorite animal and the
cafeteria distributed animal cookies. On Dark
Day, teachers used as little electricity as possible
to conserve energy. And to end the week,
students wore black and orange
to commemorate Save the Tigers
Day and attended an assembly to
raise awareness about “preserving
our resources and precious life
on the planet,” said Mr. Garguilo.
In addition to Mr. Garguilo, the
school’s environmental initiatives
have been spearheaded by teacher
and co-advisor Angel Linteau,
Camilla Calimandrei, Pamela
Pinto-Sessions, Principal Elizabeth
Lopez, and parent volunteers Elizabeth Kaplan
and Jan Maltby. Even Mr. Garguilo’s wife, Kristin
Quell-Garguilo, provided assistance by making
props.
To visit the EAC website and learn more about
what you can do to save the environment, go to
https://sites.google.com/site/garguiloscience/
EnvironmentalActionClub.
Students Honor Veterans with Mosaic Peace Mural
Mother Theresa once said, “Piece by piece,
a smile is the beginning of peace.”
And that was the theme that embodied a
year-long project by Sleepy Hollow Middle
School students that was unveiled on June
16 – an intricate mural made of thousands of
pieces of cut paper, fashioned into a depiction
of doves, each carrying people of many
nations, religions and races.
SHMS art teacher Andrea Harrison, who
spearheaded the project created by her art
students, said she was moved to create the
mural in honor of country’s veterans after
Armando “Chick” Galella, a well-known
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Public Schools of the Tarrytowns
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