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Schools

Saul Students Head to LOVE Park

The students will spend this afternoon planting and trimming greenery downtown.

Seventeen students from the  will head down to Center City this morning to lend their expertise to a cleanup effort at LOVE Park. The horticulture students will plant new flowers and greenery on the site, and trim existing flora as part of the city's beautification initiative.

All the materials will be provided by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS).

"They're all great kids over at Saul," said Sally McCabe, PHS project manager and the event's organizer. McCabe, who's worked with Saul students on various projects through the PHS in the past—including the Oak Lane Tree Tenders program—said than when she learned the city would need help sprucing up the City Hall area, Saul kids were at the top of her list.

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"These kids have experience," said McCabe. "There will be younger kids there too, and we'll have them just planting annuals—stuff that's basic—but the Saul kids are trained, so we'll have them trimming as well as planting."

Barbara Brown, a horticulture teacher at Saul who will be helping with the cleanup, says this project provides her students an opportunity to put the skills they've learned in the classroom to use in the real world.

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"All year long they've been learning applied landscape design, installation, and maintenance. And I always tell them we're going to do a community service project, so this fits everything. This is great way to end the year and get the kids to do hands-on work in the community," said Brown.

"And they're giving us a pizza lunch."

While the Saul 17 get lunch and experience, the city gets something even more valuable, says McCabe: a handsome downtown.

"City Hall is our headquarters, it should look nice. It shouldn't be a scary place. People should feel comfortable going there, you get off the subway there. Love Park in season can be gorgeous."

If all goes well this afternoon, it just got a little more gorgeous.

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