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A trash dump transforms

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By DAVE NICHOLSON

dnicholson@tampatrib.com

Published: May 27, 2009

PLANT CITY - Once a trash dump overgrown with vegetation, a wetlands area at Knights Elementary School was dedicated May 8 as a preserve, complete with a boardwalk.

Hillsborough County school district officials, a congressman, students, teachers and others were on hand for a ribbon cutting and tour. The project, started four or five years ago, transformed an eyesore into woodlands.

CF Industries fertilizer company played a major role in providing money and manpower for the project, which Principal Janine Hall estimated would have cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Students pitched in as well, including fifth-grader Emily Killian, who recalled pulling potato vines on the property when she was in second grade.

"It felt good to clean it up," said Emily, who was on the opening program at the school at 4815 N. Keene Road.

"We have a beautiful place - the preserve."

Former Principal Linda Bailey, fourth-grade teacher Cecile Longfellow and others said the 4 acres near the basketball courts once was littered with junk that included an old tractor tire, trash and scrap metal. Longfellow said the educators hit on an idea: that the area could be cleaned up and used for outdoor teaching.

The project exceeded their dreams.

"This never could have happened with just one person," Longfellow said.

Former Knights second-grade teacher Marla Wenger and her 14-year-old daughter, Destiny, were among the first to tour the boardwalk after the ribbon cutting. Wenger, who now teaches at Cimino Elementary in Tampa, recalled that her students helped clean weeds and worked hard to make it what it is today.

Teachers can use the preserve to study flora and fauna and conduct experiments.

The school also received enough money and equipment for a weather station, enhanced computers and cameras so students can monitor the wetlands from the classrooms. Other contributors besides CF included the Southwest Florida Water Management District, Hillsborough County Education Foundation, the school board and Biddinger Family Foundation.

"It's all about our kids," said Herschel Morris, CF Industries vice president for Florida phosphate operations. "Nothing is more important than our kids."

Reporter Dave Nicholson can be reached at (813) 627-4727.

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