Life skills grow alongside Marble Falls ISD’s transition house garden
Marble Falls Independent School District 18+ Transition Program coordinator Jennifer Virdell (left) and Highland Lakes Master Gardener Colleen Struss work together in the transition house's garden Sept. 10. Transition house and Falls Career High School students joined forces to work in the garden that benefits the program's students. Staff photo by Jared Fields
JARED FIELDS • PICAYUNE STAFF
MARBLE FALLS — Some students picked and pruned the overgrown tomato plants. Others carried bags of dark, rich soil to the gated garden.
But what they all did was learn valuable lessons.
“The (Highland Lakes) Master Gardeners have partnered with us so they can come out and give educational advice to our students and guidance,” said Jennifer Virdell, the Marble Falls Independent School District’s 18+ Transistion Program coordinator. “It works best for our students when it’s hands-on, so they come out and actually get their hands dirty, get down and show our students exactly how to take care of a garden, how to properly maintain the soil as well as picking the plants for the proper season.”
The 18+ Transition Program serves students with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 22 to help them learn to be independent after high school.
A transitional-living house for the program was built in 2011 with a $384,000 grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The house is the focal point of the district’s Learning Independence for Everyday (LIFE) Skills, which provides the students additional training for life after school.
The program grows a garden that students at the transition house, as well as at Falls Career High School, work to maintain.
This year, the transition house has five students. Students, staff and Master Gardeners recently worked to clean the overgrown garden. The garden has jalapeños, basil, tomatoes, bell peppers, oregano and marigolds. Soon, English peas and green beans will be planted.
Two local Master Gardeners, Warren and Colleen Struss, work with the transition house for a personal reason.
“We have been fortunate to have a young man of our own to have gone through the school district and a transition center in Austin,” said Colleen Struss of their son, Brandon. “When we learned of it, here it was a …”
“Natural fit,” Warren Struss finished.
Other than the personal connection, the Strusses said the transition program and its garden project are great learning tools.
“Its an opportunity to make a true impact on a wonderful population that gets a chance to get hands in the dirt, hands in the soil and make this happen and feel a part of the effort,” Warren Struss said. “They can be engaged with something that’s really wonderful and good, and I think it’s important for us to be a part of that.”
jared@thepicayune.com