JoCo seed program helps grow confidence in this group of Spring Hill High students

Beth Lipoff
·3 min read

A new line of seeds could be growing more than just garden plants. The seeds could be growing confidence.

The project allows students in Spring Hill High School’s 18 to 21 special-needs program a chance to cultivate their skills for the workplace.

Girard Sagmiller, whose son Dakota is in the program, came up with the idea. He has a non-profit called the Gifted Learning Project that provides information in various forms to families of children with special needs.

Sagmiller liked that with this particular venture, those in the program could help package seeds and help grow them.

“It really has taken off in that aspect,” Sagmiller said.

The idea is that students help harvest seeds from plants grown on Sagmiller’s property and in a few other locations. Once those are dried, they measure seeds to go in each packet and label the package. Their seeds include zinnia, wildflowers, pumpkin, dill, cantaloupe, tomato and beet.

Working with Mary Larson, who teaches in the school’s program, Sagmiller launched the project last fall.

“It helps them with task completion and following the steps of a cycle of what they have to do, gives them a sense of accomplishment, makes them feel proud that they’ve done something,” Larson said.

For big pumpkin and cantaloupe seeds, the students count them individually to put in each packet, whereas with small flower seeds, they carefully measure out a scoop. There are a few challenges to the work for them.

“Some of the seeds are really light and so if they breathe too hard, the seeds kind of fly away on them. Some have trouble (with) fine motor skills, but they do a pretty good job,” Larson said.

Kyle Allison, 19, enjoys the work he does on the project.

“I like putting them in bags,” he said.

A grant from Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education helped the project get started. Although the group does sell their seed packets on eBay under the name glp_nonprofit, the product can also be purchased at VaughanFire Market in Spring Hill. Sagmiller hopes to eventually sell the packets at the nearby Ace Hardware as well.

Kyle Allison, 19, scoops some of the smaller seeds into an envelope. The seed packets are part of a new venture involving Spring Hill High School and the Gifted Learning Project.
Kyle Allison, 19, scoops some of the smaller seeds into an envelope. The seed packets are part of a new venture involving Spring Hill High School and the Gifted Learning Project.

“It’s always good to have partners in the community that see value in our students and see that they have the ability to do tasks and can help with meaningful work for them,” Larson said.

Students get to choose how much time they spend on the project. Larson said each participating student typically does 10 bags per sitting, once or twice a week.

“It’s a task they can do on their own. They know where the supplies are, and they can go get the supplies out and set up their own workstation and complete their 10 bags,” she said. “It’s definitely been something that they can have a little independence in. We’re always looking for ways that we can find for them to be more independent.”

Sagmiller knows he can always count on Dakota to give him an honest opinion of the work.

“I get the unfiltered what he likes and he doesn’t like about it. He’s pretty blunt with Dad,” Sagmiller said. “At first, he was not sure about it, but now he’s the first one to take seeds to school. He’s the first one to tell me, ‘Hey, we need this or that.’”