It looks a lot like Christmas at Parkside High School in Salisbury, with red and white poinsettias lining greenhouse tables and poinsettia flags and holiday wreaths welcoming customers as they pick up plants and gift packages of tea and honey at the student-operated A+ Garden Centre.
Since it opened in 1999 the Centre has become one of the largest school-based businesses in the country. Students do all the work, from planting to sales to online promotions for more than 100,000 vegetable, herb, poinsettia and perennial plants.
Those sales help sustain the business and instructional initiatives, most importantly Parkside’s horticulture program, which is also supported by community partners who provide resources and in-kind services.
At the program’s helm is Jerry Kelley, who grew up in his family’s landscape business in Montgomery County in the 1980s, then went to work in the fashion industry as a buyer and manager for several decades. “It’s a way of giving back,” he said. “Our mission is really just to provide opportunities for students to get involved in every aspect of the green industry, of the environment, where they feel comfortable, and where they have a path, where they have a passion.”
Read the complete article at www.marylandmatters.org.