Grow Where You’re Planted
By Ryan Sparzak, Executive Director of Global Doing Good
Last year, when I dropped my kids off at Robertsville Middle School, I watched a garden slowly taking shape. Students marked the ground. They built boxes. They planted seeds. Week by week, it grew. Now that it’s Fall, it’s alive and full of fruits and vegetables.
It began as a vision from the G.I.V.E. Club and their teacher, David Scott. Just a patch of earth, then sweat, then growth. They worked, and the work changed that little patch of ground into something really special.
On the evening of Back-to-School Night, I sat on a bench in the middle of the garden, waiting for the walkthrough to begin. I was deeply impressed by the student's work. There were herbs, fresh tomatoes, squash, and what would hopefully be decent-sized ears of corn.
The phrase “Grow Where You Are Planted” is often dismissed as a cliché and frequently used in home and garden decor. But in that garden, it felt true. The students had done it. They showed how giving can take root. How ideas, tended well, can bear fruit.
In a single year, they reached beyond the soil:
- $200 to Samaritan’s Purse for flood relief in North Carolina.
- $200 to the Scarboro 85 Historical Site, honoring the first southern high school to desegregate, right here in town. (Oak Ridge, TN)
- Cards for Second Harvest Food Bank, where students help deliver 300 food packages a month.
- And yes, $100 to build a bench for the garden. The one I sat on. The one I did not know came from The Benjamin Project funds, which I learned later when I received the project update from Mr. Scott.
On Back-to-School Night, I experienced more than a peaceful moment in the garden. I benefited directly from students learning to give, teachers guiding them, and a mission made real. Across the country, The Benjamin Project is planting in schools like this. And what grows is more than gardens.
A Call to Middle School Teachers
The garden at Robertsville started with a simple idea, a handful of students, and a teacher willing to guide them. With support, it became something lasting. Your students can do the same. If they have ideas and want to serve, The Benjamin Project can help turn that vision into action. Together, we can plant more than seeds; we can grow stronger communities and stronger students, who carry the lessons of service with them wherever they go.