She was a high school dropout, a teenager with health problems, grade problems and a bleak future.
Then Sequoia Demetro signed up for a program that changed her life. She got involved with GRuB, a unique farming program in Olympia that teaches at-risk high school students about growing both vegetables and life skills.
“I don’t know if I’d ever finished high school,” Demetro said. “Not without GRuB.”
From 2001 to 2009, only 41 percent of the teens who entered the program were on track to graduate from high school. But over 91 percent of those students did graduate or got their GEDs, including Demetro, who went on to get her GED and is still involved in the program as a counselor.
“They learn how to work really hard,” said Anna Robinson, the program’s grants and marketing coordinator. “They learn basic leadership skills. We’ve seen success here.”
Demetro had dropped out of Avanti High School in Olympia after missing so much school because of an illness caused by a thyroid problem. She turned to GRuB because her two sisters had gone through the program and had a positive experience.
“I saw how much it helped my sisters,’ Demetro said. “I was at a point where I needed that.”
This month, Olympia High School begins a two-year pilot program where students will attend GRuB five days a week during the school year for three periods a day. In addition to working in the gardens in the summers at a minimum wage, they’ll take classes in horticulture science, American history and interpersonal relations.
Olympia High School principal Matt Grant is excited and impressed by the impact of the program.
“He came to us,” Robinson said. “He wanted to know more about it.”
Teachers and administrators from Alaska, Oregon and California also recently observed the Olympia program and wanted to duplicate it.
“Other schools will hopefully be taking this model and doing it on their own sites,” Robinson said. “This is not so we can become a mega nonprofit. We’re just sharing the tools and resources.”
Every year, one of the first class projects is simply to plant a seed in a pot. It’s the student’s responsible to take the plant home and nurture it. The assignment is an object lesson.
“They’re supposed to take care of it and nurture it just like their life’s goal,” Demetro said.
It was a simple, but life-changing project for Demetro.
“I just know that the program works,” said Kerry Ledig, program assistant for the school pilot program. “It’s made a difference in a lot of lives.”
Ledig said there is a dramatic before-and-after change in the students.
“When they come into the program and you see them at their graduation, you can’t help but be impressed by the change,” Ledig said. “They have confidence. They have community involvement. It’s impressive to see it happen in such a short time.”
About 20 to 25 students are involved from spring to spring, planting, weeding and picking. GRuB, which is an acronym for Garden-Raised Bounty, produces about 10,000 pounds of vegetables and fruits a year on just under two acres of land that they own. The crop is split between the students, the food bank and the community. The program has received $170,000 from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
“We always try to have the four “Rs” in everything that we do,” Demetro said. “It’s important that they push themselves and they get dirty and feel relevant.”
Demetro, as someone who has gone through the program, is now busy growing crops and growing lives, mentoring teens with problems she once faced.
“I honestly don’t know what I would have done if it wasn’t for this program,” Demetro said. “It just seems it would have gone very badly.”
