CROTHERSVILLE

It was time for a study hall replacement at Crothersville Junior-Senior High School.

Principal Adam Robinson wanted a more enriching learning experience for sixth- through eighth-graders.

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Chad Wilson was asked to lead a new enrichment class. Now that it has been going on for more than two months, his expectations have been exceeded.

“Mr. Robinson said, ‘We’re going to do this and have fun with it,’ and that’s what we’re doing,” Wilson said. “The girls have responded and have really made my job very enjoyable. I love coming in and working with these kids.”

So far, the class’ biggest undertaking has been painting the flowerpots along Armstrong Street, or U.S. 31, through the heart of the small Jackson County community.

In 2015, Mark and Leslie Adams, who operate Adams Family Funeral Home and Crematory in Crothersville, found residents and businesses to sponsor the flowerpots. Those flowerpots were filled with dirt and flowers and then ready to place.

Some of them had faded and needed some tender loving care, so Wilson saw it as a great opportunity for his 20 students.

He also suggested painting hanging flower baskets that will be put on brackets on light poles through town in the spring. Those were donated by town resident Gayle Walker.

“I’m thinking, ‘I’ll just ask my girls,’ and of course, they were just all excited about it and were like, ‘Oh yeah, absolutely,’” Wilson said.

For a couple of weeks when the weather was nice, the students grabbed paintbrushes and paint and headed outside the school to paint the large flowerpots.

“The teamwork is awesome,” Wilson said. “They work together. They get along really well. It’s a small group, and they all work together. I don’t have any discipline problems, none whatsoever from these kids. They come in and they are ready to start working before the bell even rings.”

The eighth-grade class sold mums as a fundraiser this fall, and the town purchased 10 of them to place in the flowerpots. Town employees have helped place the freshly painted flowerpots back on the sidewalks through town.

Wilson posted pictures of the students working on the school’s Facebook page, and he received a phone call from a woman who saw that post.

“The feedback that I have received has just been amazing,” said Wilson, who also serves on the Crothersville Town Council. “These are going to look really good in town, and hopefully, people catch on that there’s a big movement in town now. I received some information about a revitalization program that the state has money, so hopefully, we can use this as a catalyst to bigger things.”

The eighth-graders also picked a hanging basket to paint with their own design. In the spring, the school’s horticulture class will plant flowers in them, and then they will be ready to hang on brackets in town.

Wilson said the project is a great way for the students to be involved in the community.

“I’ve been involved with the school for 15 years, and I love my job, I love this community, and it really makes me happy to see these kids get involved with the project,” he said. “It does benefit them, us at school and the town.”

As the students move on in life, projects like this will benefit them, too.

“I encourage these kids to participate in sports and clubs and whatever, and I tell them when they go to apply for colleges and whatever, the more information you have, you’re just going to stand out,” Wilson said. “I know they are just in junior high, but right now is a good time for these kids to get in a pattern of wanting to volunteer and participate in our activities that we offer here at school and in town.”

Eighth-grader Morgan Womack said she had fun with the flowerpot project.

“I get to paint. It helps me get my creativity out,” she said while applying turquoise paint to a flowerpot. “It’s a good opportunity because it will make the town look more beautiful.”

She said it’s important to think about the community in which you live.

“By helping out the community, you get to help people who hopefully maybe one day follow in your footsteps,” Womack said.

Sixth-graders Gracie Lance and Taylor Spicer also had fun with the project.

Spicer said they first had to clean up the flowerpots so they would have a clean surface to paint.

Then came the fun part of coating each one in a different color.

“We worked for two days straight trying to get these things painted inside and out and making them look really nice,” Lance said.

The students also had to water the flowers every day.

“My favorite part about this project is everybody working together and getting these done,” Lance said. “I like how much teamwork we put into it.”

That was Spicer’s favorite part, too.

“It’s better when you work with more people, especially since the pots are bigger,” she said. “It’s better to work with everyone just so you can remember, ‘Those were my friends. That’s what we did together.’”

Lance said it will give her a lot of pride seeing the flowerpots in town.

“When you ride through town, you can tell your parents, ‘Hey, I painted that flowerpot,’ and it’s nice knowing you have something around town that you know you did to support the town,” she said.

She hopes it encourages students to think of ways to give back to the community.

“When you get older, you know that you need to do stuff for the town,” Lance said. “It’s nice working when you’re little trying to keep everything nice that when you get older telling your kids that you did these flowerpots with your teacher, you hope they get to do the same thing with their teacher, too.”

Wilson has kept the students busy with other projects, too.

They have done some cooking in the classroom, which used to serve as the home economics room.

“That’s always fun,” Wilson said. “The girls bring in the food products and we cook. We do that usually on Friday. We call it Food Friday.”

They also have used a computer program on their iPads to make a flier for a business they create.

“They get up and do an infomercial to promote their business,” Wilson said. “We also work on public speaking.”

Photography is another skill the students have practiced.

“We’ve done several walking field trips in town, and I just let the girls take pictures of whatever they wanted. Then they come back, we print them off and we’ll look at them,” Wilson said. “They really enjoy the walking field trips. As long as the weather is nice, we’ll go out and do our walking field trips.”

The students also have written papers, including a story about themselves the first week of school so everyone could get to know each other.

“They are teaching me,” he said of coming up with ideas for the class. “This is the first year, and I listen to them. They tell me, and I’ll think about it, and we’ll go out and do it. The girls seem to really enjoy the class. They are having a lot of fun with this. The girls are really creative. They are a fun group, a really fun group.”