BUCKFIELD — Pumpkins being harvested from the Buckfield school garden are being decorated by art students and auctioned off to benefit a local family whose mother is dealing with cancer. The effort is one more lesson from the garden that has already produced health and education benefits for the community.

About 80 of the 320 pumpkins from the plot next to the Buckfield Junior-Senior High School are being used as canvases to paint aliens, rock stars, funny
faces, kittens and other creatures by Nikki Millonzi’s Art II students at the school.
Then, on Oct. 2, when the garden project organizers are serving a
harvest supper, the pumpkins will be auctioned and the proceeds given to the family.

“Everyone needs a little help. This
is a way to give back to the community and show that we care for
them,” said Hailey Severy, an 11th grade art student and
Buckfield resident. Her deep purple, white and gold pumpkin depicts
something like a black widow spider.

Millonzi also plans to use the bright
yellow, sturdy sunflowers in the garden as models for students to paint likenesses of Vincent Van
Gogh’s famous sunflower composition. Millonzi also teaches photography, and is holding a photo competition with the subjects being the garden’s abundant flowers of every color and variety.

The idea for the garden began when Caldwell and
seventh-grade language arts teacher, Gretchen Kimball, discussed how
to bring fresher food to the school’s lunch program, and the
childhood obesity problem, with the health coordinator. From there, middle school youngsters
designed, researched, planted and harvested the
garden.

Since it was started in May, the one-acre of plantings has supplied vegetables for people to buy and
students and staff to eat in the cafeteria.

“The kids were knee-deep in mud when
they started planting in the pouring rain on May 29,” said
eighth-grade science teacher Caleb McNaughton, one of the garden project organizers.

Eighth-grader Jeremy Austin and others, spent recesses picking flowers or vegetables.

“I did a lot of hoeing and helped
build the garden stand,” he said. “It was fun doing stuff.”

He also was one of three dozen
students who volunteered to come to school during the summer months to continue taking care of the plants and harvesting produce.

Another organizer, eighth-grade
math teacher Annette Caldwell, estimated a ton of food has been
harvested and given or sold, so far. That doesn’t include the hundreds of squashes
and pumpkins.

Kimball said she is looking into a
grant possibility that would provide money to build an outside
classroom next to the garden.

Caldwell said the garden
project will go as far as students want it to next year.

“Maybe a greenhouse? Or composting?”
she said. “They feel ownership for the garden
and feel so proud of themselves. They feel like it’s something
special,” she said.

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Buckfield High School art students have been painting pumpkins grown in the school’s garden. About 80 of them will be auctioned Oct. 2 to benefit a local family. Some of the students are: front, Becky Carrasquillo, grade 10, Sumner, with her alien pumpkin, and Austin Dooley, grade 10, with his Kiss pumpkin; back: Hailey Severy, grade 11, Buckfield, purple spider; Alex Bedard, grade 10, Hartford, “Nightmare Before Christmas” creation, Haylee Barry, grade 10, Buckfield, smiley face, Steven Caouette, grade 10, Sumner, a white pumpkin now, but soon to be a pig with red lips, and Courtney Gordon, grade 10, Sumner, funny face. 

Alex Bedard, grade 10, of Hartford, works on his “Nightmare Before Christmas” pumpkin at the Buckfield Junior-Senior High School art class. The pumpkins from the school garden are being decorated for an auction that will benefit a local family.

Buckfield High School senior football player Kurt Sturtevant created this pumpkin showing the face of a football player. The pumpkin is from the school garden and will be auctioned Oct. 2 to benefit a local family.

Buckfield High School senior Moriah Boutin created this ticking clock pumpkin to depict the waning days of her high school career. The pumpkin was harvested from the school garden and will be auctioned Oct. 2 to benefit a local family dealing with cancer.