Five new raised beds built in the schoolyard
Long planned and now successfully implemented: eleven pupils from the municipal grammar school in Thusneldastrasse in Cologne-Deutz spent three days in Ahrweiler with their teacher Marion Koch and, together with eight pupils and one pupil from the Levana School, built raised beds to design the outdoor area of the container school in Schützenstrasse. The idea of supporting the flood-affected special school was born two years ago. The pupils actually wanted to help rebuild the destroyed school. However, as this was not possible, the project had to wait or be redirected. Now the time had finally come. In September, Thusnelda School organized three project days on the 17 global sustainability goals, which are part of the 2030 Agenda and were adopted by the international community in 2015. The dedicated pupils thought that building raised beds was an excellent fit for Goal 11 "Sustainable Cities and Communities" and organized the project with their teacher. They were supported by the Rotary Clubs of Cologne Cathedral and Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, who donated the costs for the material to build the planter boxes as well as for filling and planting. On the last day of the project, the president of the RC Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Josef Spanier, was on site and the hard-working pupils proudly presented their results. Over the course of three days, they used the prepared materials to assemble the large planter boxes, lined them with foil, filled them with soil and planted them with herbs. The two presidents of Rotary International's youth organization Interact, Kashish and Liv, also took part in the project. They provided competent information about the background to the project and thanked the Rotarians for their generous support. Both of them emphasized that it was a good experience on two levels: firstly, they learnt something new and put it into practice. They also made contacts with the pupils at Levana School and got to know each other better as they worked together towards a common goal. The supervising teachers also confirmed the good cooperation and are already looking forward to a return visit to Cologne, which has already been decided. At the end of the three successful project days, the Levana school community bid farewell to their guests with a singing circle and small gifts.
