Since Big Park Community School closed as a K-6 in the summer of 2018, the fields have turned into makeshift softball practice areas, picnic sites and unofficial dog parks, to name a few. Now a portion of the grounds that hasn’t seen as much love will be transformed from weed-ridden to a lush, colorful community garden.

The Rotary Club of Sedona Village thought that the baseball diamond and old snack shack on the north field would be the perfect spot for their new garden and equipment shed.

“This diamond, known as Doug Colletti’s Field of Dreams, will now be a Field of Greens,” the club wrote about the soon-to-be garden on their website.

As a leadership organization with a mission to improve the lives of others locally and globally through service, the VOC-based Rotary club’s latest project will feed this mission in many ways.

“We see the opportunity to provide a community service that strengthens health, nature, life skills, and creates an atmosphere of cooperation and togetherness,” club leaders wrote on the site.

The benefits of the garden are expanded on in the club’s proposal: Growing nutritious food for the community; nurturing a natural area sustainably, encouraging environmental stewardship; promoting life skills such as planning, organization, teamwork and gardening; and creating a financial opportunity to fundraise for the club, as well as the school district, by selling the garden’s produce, partnering with local restaurants and renting out plots to area organizations.

The Rotary Club’s community services chair and president-elect, Heather Hermen, highlighted these points when she presented the garden idea to the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board during its Zoom meeting on July 7.

The school district still owns the land and buildings at Big Park Community School and in the last few years has rented parts of it out, including an old kindergarten classroom that is now used by the Sedona Village Learning Center preschool and other rooms as office areas.

As the vice president of the school district board until November, Hermen had a leg up with her proposal, as she already had a close connection with the president and three council members and knew exactly how the garden could benefit the district. As such, after proposing that the district partner with the Rotary club, Hermen abstained from voting and the other three members and the board president passed the partnership 4-0, allowing the garden to be built on the campus.

“We would like to have children bussed out there and learning about composting, so in the future, you know, we could be having a farmer’s market and the kids could be the ones selling. We could even be creating some type of our own salsa or some type of item that
would be sold, and funds being raised,” Hermen told the board during the meeting. “We even think that once we have some stuff growing that we could actually be serving local chefs, we could be doing dinners under the stars on that campus, and serving beer and wine, and raising money for the Education Foundation and the district, as well as our Rotary Club.”

Current Rotary club president Jennette Bills also presented, saying she was excited to collaborate in “bringing together multiple organizations and multiple ages, from kindergarten to people at the Sedona Winds, to bring them to the community garden and share time and use it for education, for gathering spots, for everything else.”

The school board members and district administrators were vocal during the meeting in their enthusiasm for what the garden will mean for the campus and surrounding communities come spring of 2021.

“I have a lot of proposals that come through my desk often, but this one really excited me because I think it really is an opportunity to bring some communities together and to enhance our kids’ experiences too,” District Superintendent Dennis Dearden said.

Hermen noted that all the funding and man-power related to the garden would come from the Rotary club through grants and fundraising, not the district.

With the OK to go, the Rotary club will now focus on a plot plan, dividing the ground for plot sizes, according to their proposal, and developing sales packets that will inform locals and businesses on how to sponsor or adopt plots.

Sponsorship opportunities are already listed at sedonavillagerotary.org to help raise money for soil, tools, seeds, plants, fencing, building materials and other supplies, as well as labor costs.

Community engagement is key, and the club hopes to work with local
nonprofit Gardens for Humanity in order to develop a garden plan focusing on a planting schedule, composting, weed and watering management, plot development and separation, produce management and disbursement, and the creation of a future farmer’s market or other outlet to sell.

There is already metal fencing along most of the baseball field, but the club has estimated they will need to spend around $4,500 to close a gap that is around 260 feet. They are also planning to add sun shades to some of the existing fencing for year-round protection and
coverage.

The club also wants to develop a greenhouse on the property and is toying with the idea of transforming an out-of-commission school bus into one — a symbol of the once-bustling school that was there — and the regrowth that is sure to come.

Alexandra Wittenberg can be reached at 282-7795 ext 126 or awittenberg@larsonnewspapers.com.