Landscape Association Teams with Local High School for Earth Day Project

It’s Earth Day today and while some people simply talk about the environment, others are really putting their backs into it.

In Colorado Springs, a group of professional landscape contractors teamed up with high school students on Friday for a project that they hope will educate and inspire for years to come.

They’re transforming a 7,000 square-foot plot of land into a learning laboratory at Sierra High School.

Construction student Christian Ramirez approves.

“It’s a good way to show how pretty the world could be,” he said.

The lab will be used to teach the principles of irrigation, drainage and botany. And when construction is complete the students will do all the planting.

Students say it’s their way to reduce their carbon footprint.

Julio Moreno, Ramirez’s classmate elaborated.

“Because when you think about Earth Day, you think about earth and how green and beautiful it is. So, stuff like this really makes everything green and beautiful – like the earth,” he told us.

This project incorporates a lot of adults getting together with a lot of kids and showing them how to build a future.

Matt Hiner, of the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado told us just how expansive this project is.

“We’ve got over 17 companies that donated either their time, labor or materials with over 32 laborers of different companies coming together to make it happen,” he said.

The project is estimated to be worth between $50,000 to $60,000.

Jeff Stuber, the construction Instructor at the Career Readiness Academy at sierra high school was overwhelmed by the generosity.

“This is community support and we couldn’t be here without community support. Harrison School District 2 needs good support and we just got it here. This is 100% volunteer.

The students hope their efforts will send a message. Moreno voiced it on their behalf:

“Respect the planet. That’s all,” he said.