Directory of Gardens

Helms Community Learning Center Outdoor Classroom

The Helms Community Learning Center is a Houston Independent School District center located in the Heights area of north central Houston. Helms is an elementary school for pre-K through 5th grade, and also features an after-school program and adult education classes including English as a second language and parenting classes. The school is predominately Hispanic, with 90 percent of the students classified as English Language Learners. 90 percent of the students are also on the free lunch program.

The Helms outdoor classroom includes a pond and wetlands, a butterfly garden, native plants, fruit trees, and a small building housing school pets. The garden environment is continued inside the school; everywhere you go within the Helms Learning Center, there are fish and other animals, and plants are also in every classroom. The school has ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, a hedgehog, a monitor lizard, parakeets, fish, turtles and a tarantula. All of these animals need attention and maintenance, so after-school clubs take care of their critters. The outdoor environments create many spontaneous moments for students to observe nature. Herons occasionally visit the pond and a kingfisher shows up routinely.

The garden became a reality with the hard work and dynamic enthusiasm of art and science teacher, Lindy Meader, In 1992 Meader began plans for the garden. She was concerned about the damage people cause our planet and wanted a way to teach children to respect both our natural environments and the creatures that live in them. Lindy has developed a rich educational environment that can be used throughout the school day to teach TAKS objectives. A mathematics, science, and technology initiative known as HULINC includes many materials that are used in the garden or in activities related to the gardening.

The garden is by no means a one-person operation today. Meader built a team of community members to help make the garden a reality. The Helms outdoor classroom now involves many large businesses, volunteer organizations, a university program, and individuals throughout the city. These volunteers have been very important to the success of the program, but just as important are the program's contents.

Shell Oil has been a major contributor to the Helms garden. Shell Oil gave $500,000 to start a dual language program in Spanish and English. Shell Oil employees not only created a butterfly garden, but were instrumental in arranging Southwest Stone's donation of Austin Stone for the pond. In addition, this group painstakingly installed insulation, interior walls, lighting, and shelving into a storage shed to house the schools pets during the summer and holidays. Their SHEN group (Shell Hispanic Employee Network) also provided many volunteers for landscaping the front of the school and maintaining the garden and wetland.

Other contributors to the outdoor classroom include the University of St. Thomas and the Houston Police Department. St. Thomas began bringing education students to the school and they approached Lindy with the idea of creating a wetlands to teach math, language, and science. Helms then used $4,000 from a federal program to start building the wetlands. They dedicated a classroom to the University of St. Thomas. This houses university students who want to learn first hand how to teach students. The wetlands lead to more help. A few blocks from the school, Michael Carroll and Denise Flores, who own Sunrise Delivery Service and Sunrise Construction, saw the wetland area being constructed and donated a bridge for the wetlands, money, expertise in construction, and a great collection of bones that hang on the fence! Their support continues to this day.

Larry Menson, who works with probationary students on Saturdays, brought in a group of youth who helped construct the pond and continue to work on building and maintenance projects for the outdoor classroom. The Houston Police Department has an Environmental Investigations Unit that fines corporations and businesses that pollute. Many judges who hear the pollution cases participate in a program that places these fines into grants, which are available for schools to use for funding outdoor classroom programs. Helms received $25,000 from this program. The money paid for a very large storage area, benches, workstations for the students, a flag pole, trash cans, removal of diseased trees, and much else.

Joshua, from Joshua's Native Plants located nearby in the Heights, donated the layout of the butterfly area and many plants. A.L.P.F.A., (the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting), provided herbs for the garden along with working with students on Saturdays. Ralph Taylor, from Harris County Flood Control, has also contributed his expertise on native plants and water flow along with his labor to develop and maintain the wetlands. Laury and David Farias once lived in the neighborhood. They noticed the garden and became interested in contributing to it. They have donated many native plants and fruit trees. They would like to continue assisting other schools and can be contacted at farias@sbcglobal.net.

A local plumbing business helped improve a picnic area under some Live Oak trees in the front of the school. This area has several large concrete tables, which were originally in Milby Park in the Heights. Several high school programs have students who routinely contribute their help to the outdoor classroom as well. Giving volunteer hours is now required for high school graduation. Amigos de Los Americanos is a youth group that helps high school students spend their summers in other countries trying to improve rural communities. They come to learn about gardens as part of their training.

Over the years, there are also many other dedicated volunteers who have contributed plants and animals to the school. As Lindy explained to me, "You have to touch a child seven times for that learning to become a part of them." The benefits of this effort are strongly apparent at Helms!

 

2311 Canal St., Suite 122, Houston, TX 77003
713-880-5540 •