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A member of the Shelby Area Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority helping Clanton Elementary School students in their Tigger’s Garden. (SAAC | CONTRIBUTED)

The SAAC of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority established a gardening initiative with Clanton Elementary School students through the 2024-2025 school year. (SAAC | CONTRIBUTED)

The volunteers of SAAC visit the CES students on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. (SAAC | CONTRIBUTED)

Some of the plants that are sprouting in Clanton Elementary School’s Tigger Garden. (SAAC | CONTRIBUTED)

Clanton Elementary School students getting their hands dirty in their new Tigger’s Garden. (SAAC | CONTRIBUTED)

By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

A local alumni sorority group has been helping Clanton Elementary School students build a garden this school year that is coming to life more and more after each visit. The Shelby Area Alumnae Chapter (SAAC) of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority established a gardening initiative for second-grade students in the after-school program at CES.

Along with the help of CES teacher Shannon Ricks, the SAAC chapter established “Tigger’s Garden.” The garden’s name plays off the school’s tiger mascot, and it is an above-ground garden “that provides a hands-on gardening experience for the students,” a press release from the SAAC said.

Volunteers from SAAC visit CES students on the first and third Wednesdays of each month from 3-5 p.m. to garden with them. The garden began last September, and the ladies of SAAC will continue visiting the students through this May. During that time, they will accumulate 316 hours of volunteer services impacting an average of 24 students each visit. The initiative also gave a small outdoor space in the center of a building on the CES campus a new purpose and brightened the entire area.

“They are really enjoying the program, and they have liked the planting aspect,” Ricks said. “This lets them get outside too, and the ladies have been coming all year.”

Some of the goals of Tigger’s Garden the SAAC had for the students included providing opportunities for hands-on learning, motivating students to eat fruits and vegetables, promote physical activity and supply local produce to fellow students. The students learned about many aspects of gardening including planting, using greenhouses and hydroponics. Through those experiences, the students learned to predict, plan, observe, weed, water, measure, calculate and research when it comes to gardening.

The sorority alumni brought the students fruits and vegetables to eat, ones they could plant in a garden, each visit and employed the ABCs to serve them. Students received snacks like apples for the letter A, bananas for the letter B, cucumbers for the letter C and so on.

“I really liked planting and eating the fruit,” a CES student said.

The next steps for Tigger’s Garden will be to add artwork to the walls of the garden to continue to enhance the area.

The Shelby Area Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority has 167 members in it, and it is a public service organization that provides public service initiatives that benefit Bibb, Chilton and Shelby Counties.

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