Student News Desk: Southwest Hive Helpers plant positive experiences for school and community

Lincoln Public Schools understands the importance of quality journalism to help inform our community and shine a light on the people, programs and events that make our school district unique. Student News Desk is our ongoing effort to promote excellence in journalism and public education. We select a story written by student journalists from our high school publications classes to be featured on the Lincoln Public Schools homepage and social media each month. Congratulations to Grace Farley of Southwest High School for being selected for September!

Written by Grace Farley, Southwest High

Every Thursday at 3:15 p.m., the Lincoln Southwest (LSW) Hive Helpers meet in room A105. Open to everyone year round, the club is headed by LSW senior Lillian Bittle, who has been in it since her freshman year.

“I joined my freshman year because of my dad, who sponsors the club, and I liked it,” Bittle said.  “Then, sophomore year, I took over, and I think we’ve grown a lot. We have been able to build a leadership team with three other people.”

The other leadership in Hive Helpers are seniors Charlie Rader, Elizabeth Napolitano, and Katie Timmer. Collecting produce in the fall, the club puts their produce to use to help both the school and the community.

“We grow all kinds of produce for different culinary classes,” senior Elizabeth Napolitano said. “We grow tomatoes, herbs, peppers and strawberries. We grew watermelon last summer and we are looking at growing pumpkins this fall.”

At the school, there are different gardens that the team works around the year to grow items in their numerous places. Items range in things grown from fruits and vegetables to wildflowers for crafts and to improve pollination.

“We have our pollinator node and it has native plants,” Napolitano said. “Then we have our culinary garden, which is for culinary classes. And we have our hydroponic garden, which is basically a dirtless garden with water running down it all the time from a tower inside.”

In order to raise money to fund the club, Hive Helpers attend the LSW Craft Fair, hosted by the theatre department and sell things that they make during their meetings. Ranging from small crafts to large ones, they are up for purchase at the LSW craft fair.

“We’ve made chapstick, wildflower seed bookmarks, and bracelets,” Bittle said. “It’s all pretty cheap, but you can always find our booth, and you can help support us and gardens.”

Check out this story and more at Southwest’s online publication: https://lswhawk.com/

---