Student seeks to set up interior landscape
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

PARIS – A student’s love of landscaping is about to transform a barren space where a beautiful water fountain once stood.

Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School senior Kirby Sprague plans to create an interior landscape under the stairwell using a variety of plants, including English ivy, philodendron and peace lily.

Sprague is growing plants at the school, but is also seeking donations of landscaping material from the business community for the Independent Study project, which will also serve as his senior exit presentation.

The fountain sculpture by Waterford pottery artist Rusty Wiltjer, installed in 1996, was removed several years ago.

Since then, even though colorful paintings adorn the brick walls under the stairwell, the space has become something of an eyesore. The graceful curves of a three-foot retaining wall hold nothing but sand surrounded by an empty plastic pond.

“It’s nothing much to look at,” said Sprague. “It’s kind of a dead zone.”

On Monday, scraps of paper and an empty cigarette pack lay inside the pond. Littering and vandalism has been a problem with the space, but monitoring cameras have since been installed on both floors. Sprague said he hopes the cameras will discourage anyone from tampering with the living landscape display.

“I am the first student to do anything concerning landscaping here at the school,” stated Sprague in a letter to the community seeking donations. The landscaping project, he said, “will benefit the whole student body to some extent, as well as the teachers and visitors at the school.”

He said later that he hopes his project will inspire more of a focus on landscaping at the school.

Sprague’s Independent Study teacher, Anne Smith, encouraged him to seek the community’s support with the project. He has already received commitments of help from Goodschmidts Landscaping and Garden Center in Oxford.

The foliage plants, soil, turf, mulch and other landscaping materials needed to complete his design cost around $500. Sprague said science teacher Joe Dobbins is also helping provide materials for the project.

Sprague’s interest in landscaping began two years ago, when he worked as a member of the Youth Conservation Corps on erosion control projects for the Thompson Lake Environmental Association.

“My first two years here were basically pretty nonproductive,” he said. “I didn’t have much in mind for the future.”

Landscaping has given him the focus to stay the course to graduation, said Sprague, 18. He would like to work for a year after graduation as an AmeriCorps volunteer, then enroll at Unity College.

In his fund-raising letter, he wrote, “Studies show that interior plantings in a building reduce stress, expand and uplift the mind, as well as make the building more expensive-looking. Plants promote better air quality and lower levels of bacteria and viruses.”

He plans to recognize companies that donate materials with a plaque placed by the site.

Those who would like to contribute to his project may do so by sending a check payable to “OHCHS Fountain Project,” and mailed to OHCHS, 256 Main St., Paris, or by phone the school at 743-8914.