Students from Buchtel high school did more than just clean up a vacant lot Monday in the Roselawn/Excelsior section of Akron’s Middlebury neighborhood.
They planted hope.
The lot at 782 Excelsior Ave. is owned by the Summit County Land Bank and maintained by neighbor Dean Christy, who lives on Roselawn Avenue behind it and two adjacent vacant lots. Christy, 55, cuts the grass when it gets too long. On Monday, he was removing poison ivy that sprung up among some trees he also cut down.
The work by the eight 10th-graders in Meredith Cole and Liz Terrill’s biohealth class continues what he started. Since he mows and picks up litter, they had a clean slate, although they did have to do some tilling.
By early afternoon, a chipped-wood walkway leading to a purple, iron, buddy bench had already taken shape, a few plants including fragrant oregano already in the ground. Behind the bench rests the stone foundation of the house that used to stand there. Painted a bright blue, pavers formed a hopscotch board, and a mural bearing the words “Love” and “Peace” had taken shape on a back fence, dotted with the students’ handprints. The rest of the fence was painted gray to cover plain wood.
Cole and Terrill had students work on a similar project last year, but it only got as far as ideas on paper.
This year, Cole, Terrill and their students get to see their ideas blossom, much like the flowers and shrubs they were planting on Excelsior, with help from Marissa Little, neighborhood revitalization coordinator for Neighborhood Network, a program of Habitat for Humanity of Summit County.
The day began early when students arrived from Buchtel after a ride on the city’s red-and-green trolley.
Keep Akron Beautiful had already dropped off its Community Pride Trailer full of tools. On the grass in its shade rested two models made of cardboard, construction paper and miniatures one might find in a fairy house, grand plans on a small scale. Ideas were presented earlier in the project and judges picked the winning plans.
In the late spring sun, the students brought those plans to life, tasked with applying what they’ve learned from research to re-imagine the vacant lot into a space that will improve the mental and emotional health of the neighbors.
It’s a project weeks in the making. The students came up with a design, did research and created the 3-D models. They researched plants that were helpful in easing depression and anxiety, and discovered purple was a color that soothes. They not only painted the bench but also put it together.
“They talked about how kids could go there and sit together and socialize and stay out of trouble,” Cole said.
They planned for the hopscotch game because they heard there was a group of eight to 10 school-age kids who lived in the neighborhood who had nowhere to play, a group that includes Christy’s two granddaughters.
“They play over here all the time,” said Christy, who has lived in the neighborhood he loves since 1982. They can access the lots through an old wooden door he hung in the fence so he could get his mower through and not have to push it around the block. But even that was done with care. The five-panel door is befitting a secret garden, in a matching wood frame with glass-block cutouts above it and a small shingled overhang.
“It gives the neighborhood a little hope and a little beauty,” said Lyle Jenkins, a member of the Neighborhood Network who grew up in Goodyear Heights but moved to Middlebury about five years ago. “A lot of people love the neighborhood and have great hopes for things getting better.”
The project focused on the Roselawn/Excelsior neighborhood east of Windsor Street because of its high rate of vacant homes. Out of 62 parcels, according to Neighborhood Network, about 60 percent of the neighborhood is vacant, including housing and land.
After a lunch break, the students walked around the neighborhood and saw the vacant houses. They heard how thieves break in and steal items such as copper pipes to sell for money that can be used to buy drugs. Christy said people often come and dump trash in the vacant lots.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to provide students with real community challenges that require real solutions, in real time,” said Patrick Bravo, executive director of the Summit County Land Bank and president of the Akron Board of Education. “The students showed initiative and creativity in their projects and it was great to work with them.”
They also got a chance to learn new skills. Some had not worked with mulch before, or painted, or used a wheelbarrow.
Buchtel students Marce Compton-Vaughn, 16, and Tamia Motley, 16, were taking a water break and trying to wipe the paint off their hands.
They enjoyed the day.
“We kind of did a little bit of everything,” Marce said. Her favorite part was painting the fence. She liked being outside in the nice weather and would like to work on such a project again.
“We worked hard,” Tamia said.
When asked his favorite part about the day, Lentrell Whisenant, 16, said he liked “helping the community be a better community and maybe come together.”
Eleven of the houses in the neighborhood are owner-occupied by owners like Christy and neighbors Sam and Doris Slater. The Slaters were driving by and stopped to survey the scene.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Doris Slater said.
“It’s a good idea that they’ve got here,” Sam Slater said. “This area is cloistered from the main body of travel around here, so anytime we can get help to do stuff like this we’re more than happy to have them come in.”
The Slaters have lived in the same home since 1968. Sam Slater, 77, retired after 28 years as an Akron police officer. His wife, Doris, 78, was a seamstress. Together they raised three boys, Central-Hower graduates who long have wanted their parents to move.
The Slaters said their house is paid off and is just the way they want it. Sam would hate to leave his cherry trees, so beautiful in the springtime.
“Why should we go anywhere else?” Doris asked.
Like Sam’s cherry trees, the Christy family and the Slaters are rooted in the neighborhood.
This week, the students put down roots, too.
“I would like to come back and see how it is,” Tamia said.
Monica L. Thomas can be reached at 330-996-3827 or mthomas@thebeaconjournal.com.