Senior Venture's Spotlight: Lucy Bearden's Final Project

The DarFarm club is an after-school activity for students that averages 5-10 members a year. Members complete activities focused on the greenhouse, outdoor garden and farm area and some community outreach. My Senior Ventures project has allowed me to build a sustainable level of organization, management and membership into the DarFarm and leave a lasting legacy at Darlington School.

Throughout the year, I have served as the lead student manager of the DarFarm. To be a leader, you have to encourage others to be involved so my project began with recruiting new members. Over the summer, I created a bulletin board in the science hallway to inform students how they could get involved with the DarFarm group. I also made announcements during chapel, managed the DarFarm Instagram account, and sent emails to students and faculty regarding what was happening with the DarFarm. Once we had new members involved in the DarFarm organization, I assisted with training them on how to take care of the chickens, tend to the garden, plant and maintain vegetables and other plants in the greenhouse, and how to grow succulents. 

Serving our community is important to the DarFarm. I worked with the Davies Homeless Shelter and assisted with organizing a group of faculty members to work in their garden during a faculty community service work day. I also donated eggs to the shelter several times. To provide exposure for the DarFarm, I entered one of our Long Island Cheese pumpkin varieties into the Coosa Valley Fair agriculture competition. The pumpkin won a first place ribbon in its division. 

I have been managing the DarFarm expenses throughout the year. The funds allow us to maintain the greenhouse and farm. I have also assisted with the 21 raised beds in the garden, maintaining the greenhouse, and I organized and ran the succulent plant sale in December.  The DarFarm has a large flock of chickens and requires management. I made sure they were cared for and gathered and sold their eggs to the Darlington community.  

The pandemic has really changed the outcome of my project. We were planning a plant sale for the Spring. I was also developing lessons to teach lower school students about sustainable farming. The Pre-K class was going to take a tour of the DarFarm, and this would have been a fun hands on learning experience. I really needed to be at school to complete my project. We had several unique ideas but sadly our time was cut short. 

I contacted Mrs. Linda Owens (‘79) who is the chairman of the board at Southeastern Mills Inc. Southeastern Mills is a grain processing facility where a variety of  foods are produced from raw grains. Mrs. Owens arranged for me to tour Southeastern Mills, and she was excited to hear that I was interested in pursuing this path. She was able to connect me with several contacts and provided me with  information about the steps I should take in the next few years to gain an education in something that I am very interested in pursuing. I am proud to have had the opportunity to work with such a knowledgeable and caring community mentor throughout my Senior Ventures project. 

Mr. Hudson and Mr. Kinney were my two mentors throughout my project. Mr. Hudson and I worked together after school at the DarFarm. He helped with selling eggs, growing seeds under the grow lights, and then helped transplant what we grew to the greenhouse. We had plans to have a spring plant sale from what we started under the grow lights.

Mr. Kinney was a lot of help during the succulent season. He helped with getting the supplies and planting the succulent clippings under the grow lights to make them grow before we sold them. Our succulent sale was probably my most successful event of my project and I really enjoyed the experience.

Please watch the video provided to learn more and view pictures of the progress of my project.