It has been an ongoing project for five years, and both the beginning and end of the process are always eagerly anticipated.
Every fall, St. Anthony School of Hawthorne first graders, under the direction of the township’s Shade Tree Commission, have planted 100 daffodil bulbs for fresh, new flowerings to appear on the school grounds in the spring.
The daffodils have indeed sprung in the front of the school building.
Albert Ianacone, for 10 years, has been a commissioner of the Shade Tree Commission and has aided the project since its inception. The process begins with Ianacone writing a grant proposal to Passaic County, and the county program has approved it since the beginning.
Sister Mary Jackson, principal of St. Anthony School, said, “This is a specific job for our first graders, so they look forward to that as they enter the first grade. We are within our plan; we call it our ‘Pastoral Plan’ each year. But the whole plan has been created through Pope Francis’ letter of ‘Laudato Si,’ which is that of caring for the earth and doing our part.”
According to Sister Jackson, the project has a few purposes. The first is to beautify the school. It’s also important that everyone understands that they have a part in caring for creation — or what Pope Francis calls our common home.
Sister Jackson added, “A third is just to know that God has entrusted to us this part, so that we do the planting, and then we do the watering. But he does the watering, too. It is Him who ultimately makes it grow.”
Sister Jackson also mentioned her gratitude to first-grade Science teacher Tiffany DellaCroce, and third-grade Science teacher Christine Demareski for their yearly dedication to the project.
She said, “I am so grateful for our teachers and for the commitment they have. Our teachers are willing to understand that this is project service learning, and they take time outside of the classroom or outside of the regular curriculum in order to take the kids outside with Mr. “I” (Ianacone) and do all this planting and then see the fruits of their labors.”
Ianacone, who also works on a project with third-graders in both public and private Hawthorne schools, recently applied for and received another grant and, during a recent visit and talk at St. Anthony, presented each third-grade student with a one-foot high, white flowering dogwood seedling.
It is as much a joy for him as well as the students. He said, “It is fun. I enjoy working with kids.”
Sister Jackson stated that it is important for young people to contribute, see, and understand that everything starts with a seed.
“It starts small, and they sometimes in first-grade do not understand what is going to come later. But they have the opportunity to plant that seed, and they get excited when they see the first few daffodils. They even come up sometimes with a little bit of snow around them, and they just cannot believe how that little seed became so strong.”