CPES celebrates Alabama's birthday

Chelsea Park Elementary celebrated the Alabama Bicentennial with a birthday celebration for the state on Tuesday morning.

Students, teachers and honored guests gathered in the school’s new garden for the student-led event. They discussed the garden project, which was done with money received from a grant for being a Bicentennial school.

Chelsea Park Elementary was chosen as one of the 200 Alabama Bicentennial Schools and was awarded a $2,000 grant to pursue the projects. Brooke Dunham, Chelsea Park Elementary music teacher and one of the bicentennial project leaders, said their community service project was focused on building an outdoor classroom, beautifying the school and working with the local farmers associations to teach fourth graders about farming and agriculture by building a garden.

As a result of the project, students were able to plant and grow herbs, including parsley, lavender, thyme and rosemary, and made salsa and lavender sachets from the herbs. These items were sold and the proceeds were given to Heavenly Smiles, a local food bank charity in Chelsea.

Honored guests at the event included Chelsea City Council members Tiffany Bittner, Casey Morris, Chris Grace and Scott Weygand. Joyia Pittman, Education Specialist for the Bicentennial and Peg Hill, Vice President of the Shelby County School Board were also in attendance.

At the end of the program, all the students sang the Alabama State Song, followed by Happy Birthday to Alabama then enjoyed cupcakes in their classrooms.