Elementary school Green Club preserves trail

The Gale-Bailey Elementary School Green Club has been preserving the Dogwood Trail behind their school throughout the year with visions of a beautiful green space for the community.

Starting last year, Gale-Bailey students, parents and staff worked to clean up the half-mile walking path as the beginning of a larger plan to create an outdoor space to be used for both the school and the community. The wooded trail had not been in use for years, said Gale-Bailey Principal Tangie Scales, and needed the community’s green thumb.

Now, Gale-Bailey is taking its next steps toward the preservation of the trail — all with the help of the school’s Green Club. This spring, club members will plant flowers and more Dogwood trees on the newly cleared-out trail, and benches will be installed at the start of the trail.

The next big step for the project is to create an outdoor classroom in a clearing along the trail, Scales said. All Gale-Bailey classes will be able to take advantage of the outdoor learning area, which Scales expects to be finished and in use by the spring.

“Our students are really excited. They love outside, so why not learn out there?” the principal said. Students will have tree-stump seating and use clipboards to complete work while in the outdoor classroom.

The Dogwood Trail preservation project was possible due to a $2,500 Citizen Stewardship Grant from Forever Maryland that the school received last year. Though the project has been a focus of the Green Club, the efforts to maintain and beautify the trail have been from many Gale-Bailey students, parents, staff and community members.

“If you know anything about Gale-Bailey, we want you to know that we are a family school,” Scales said. “It’s for the community as well.”

The Gale-Bailey Green Club has been a staple of the school for about 50 years, Scales said. The club has over 40 student members who meet monthly.

At their February meeting, second, third and fourth graders decorated canvas bags to be used instead of plastic bags at grocery stores. Fifth grade students worked on their submissions for the National Arbor Society’s Arbor Day poster competition.