Ferguson’s 3rd Beautification Day

Recently, the third Beautification Day of this school year took place on March 2nd from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm. Many people participated in this event, during which they get the opportunity to “beautify” the school as well as receive many community service hours.

The information for Beautification Day was shared with all the students at Ferguson through different sources, including the application known as Remind and the afternoon announcements.

Students received ten community service hours just by participating in this event, and they receive an additional ten hours for each plant that they bring, but the school only allowed certain types of plants which include: Codiaeum Croton Landscape 3G Asst, Schefflera Trinette Landscape 3G, Hibiscus 3G Bush Asst, and Ixora Asst 3G. Students may bring a maximum of 6 plants, and each one is worth 10 community service hours, thus the individual would receive up to 60 hours with an additional 10 hours if they participate in this event.

Students also had the opportunity to bring palm trees instead and each one would provide 15 hours to the person in return, but in this case, the student could only bring 4 plants and 2 palm trees at most. After everyone has finished their duties, they will be receiving their volunteer hour letters at approximately 12:30 pm – 1:00 pm.

There were a group of individuals who dedicated their time into planning these events for the students to take part in. One of the school staff members involved in planning the Beautification Projects was Mr. Smith who mentioned that he could not complete this project alone, therefore he states that “Out of the students in the Senior Class that work with Ms. Rae, we always get together and plan Beautification Projects to enhance the school, it is a great team effort, and what I mean by team effort is because I get together with the students, and they share ideas on what they feel will better the school, then I get my insight into how I feel that we can better the school and put it together, we find ways to make the Beautification Project work.” Hence, the Beautification Day activities always result in being successful and beneficial for the school including the faculty, staff, and students among it.

The students who helped Mr. Smith organize the Beautification Day were Alex Van and Ramon Velozo who is in 12th grade. Alex Van claims that “Mr. Villalobos wanted to make the softball fields for the softball team beautified, so what we did was get plants and plant them there, we were trying to get palm trees, but they were too expensive, so we ended up not getting them.” Therefore, each Beautification Day Project that this group of individuals has arranged consist of their own specific goal, but overall these people want to find ways to make the school more visually pleasing for people. Students who participated in these events have had the chance to leave their own legacy by giving back to the school.

During Beautification Day, students were divided into different groups and each one was assigned a different task. Thus, Emily Reyes who is a Sophomore at John A. Ferguson Senior High School mentions that her group “was assigned a section near the soccer field where we were asked to start pulling out old plants and weeds to plant new ones in that area.”

The students helped donate plants to the school so that they did not have to invest as much money on plants. Additionally, the students’ assistance in improving the appearance of the school was extremely effective, because it led to tremendous results which have impacted the school in major ways.

One of the freshman students at John A. Ferguson, Daniela Camperos, has shared her genuine opinion about this Beautification Project. Daniela mentions that “the thing I liked most about this activity was taking part in planting the plants with my friends and after each plant that was planted, I felt accomplished.” Although Daniela, as well as many other teenagers, enjoyed this event, she was not looking forward to working with dirt, mulch, and plants with her bare hands. Therefore, Daniela clearly states that “If I could improve this activity I would inform everyone to bring gloves and I would have more tools to plant the plants with. I did not know that we needed our own gloves and there were times where we had to wait a while for a specific tool to be available.”

Although many people agree that they did not enjoy doing messy work, they believe that it was all worth it. According to a student in 10th grade at Ferguson named Joyce Borges, she mentions that “I would go to another event like this because at the end of the day I believe the hard work paid off and it was a great experience I would not want to miss.”

Another student who is currently in 9th grade by the name of Melodie Perez claims that “I expected to see fewer people at Beautification Day than there actually was, I am happy to know that people enjoy contributing to the school.” Paola Lopez, a freshman at John A. Ferguson utters that “I remembered looking at a certain area of the school where they looked so colorless and lifeless, and I wanted to help change that.”

Mr. Smith who is one of the people in charge of the Beautification Project is glad to be aware that adolescents have noted the importance of improving the environment by engaging in these activities. Smith voices the importance of the Beautification Projects and how much he appreciates the help from the students themselves and the parents who decided to stay behind and assist in any way possible.

Smith states that “Every Beautification Project that we do, you can go back and look at that area, and you see the plants already starting to blossom and see the plants already starting to grow, and plus I love it because the kids take ownership of it. We have a great school, the students do not damage the plants or they do not damage the Beautification Projects that we do at the school. Everybody is able to share it, whether you came and participated or not, so even if you do not volunteer or you cannot come on Saturdays, just being able to recognize great art when you see it, meaning the plants and everything that is happening great and positive.”

As a result, multiple people unite and work together during Beautification Day for all the same reason which is to improve the exterior appearance of the school.