PULLQUOTE:

“When I go into the greenhouse, if I’m having a bad day, I just breathe and think about the plants, if they can make it in this world, so can I.” — unidentified student

RUMFORD — Tucked in a small, second floor room of Pennacook Learning Center is an amazing sight.

Tomato plants reach for the ceiling, buckets and flats are growing basil and coleus, and on one side near the floor, a series of beige PVC pipes with strategically created holes contain more plants with incredibly long roots.

Under the pipe, a large, gray plastic storage container originally used to store Ryan Parent’s hunting clothes sits, full of water that is circulating in the PVC pipe.

Welcome to the school’s hydroponic garden project.

Parent, a special education teacher, and his technician, Anthony Mazza, have rigged up a project almost guaranteed to make learning fun for the 33 kindergarten through grade 12 special needs students.

And to make the garden project better equipped, the Rumford Police Association has donated thousands of dollars worth of grow lights, timers, scales and other items confiscated by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Sgt. Tracey Higley said confiscated items are generally tossed out, but the association decided to write a grant for some of them, knowing that the items could be used in the schools.

“We asked if they’d donate them to a school for education,” Higley said.

Mazza said the MDEA items as well as a $3,000 grant from Lowe’s are being used to create a greenhouse and several garden beds outside the Virgin Street school. A compost pile also is planned, using scraps from the school’s kitchen.

Eventually, the hydroponic garden will be transformed into the newest way to grow vegetables, an aquaponic garden. This technology uses fish and water in a hydroponic-styled setup to grow plants and vegetables.

“We’ll grow our own duckweed, too,” said Mazza, who has his own garden at home.

Parent and Mazza said they plan to start seedlings next week, some of which will likely be used by teacher Lindsay MacMillan and her students at the Mountain Valley Middle School garden.

Pennacook director Rick Greene said Parent and Mazza took the initiative to get the gardening project going. The two also gave much of their own time and items to the project.

Parent said gardening is a relaxing activity for the students. “It also opens the door to the science curriculum and hands-on science,” he said.

Several students wrote about the greenhouse and growing plants, including one who particularly likes the smell of it.

“When I go into the greenhouse, if I’m having a bad day, I just breathe and think about the plants, if they can make it in this world, so can I,” the student wrote.

Parent said the gardening program could never have afforded to buy the grow lights and other items Higley helped provide.

“Whatever Pennacook can’t use, another school can,” Higley said.

Tentative plans are to launch the aquaponics growing program using tillapia fish next year. The instructors also hope to eventually market some of the produce grown in the gardens as part of an entrepreneurship project. Local businesses and individuals have also made donations to the school’s gardens.