Class of ‘78 branching out to beautify campus with dogwood trees

This month, Bearden’s class of 1978 is sponsoring the planting of dogwood trees on school grounds in order to beautify campus. Over fall break, 78 holes were dug across campus where the saplings will be planted.

The idea came from a walk around campus. After a baseball game against Farragut, administrator Mrs. Anna Graham and Bearden Foundation president Buddy Heins discussed ways to improve the aesthetics of the school.

“[Our campus] is already one of the nicest campuses in the Knox County School system,” Mrs. Graham said. “However, there’s always room for improvement, and we would like to add more trees to our campus.”

Mrs. Graham said that the dogwood trees are “phase two” of beautifying campus. Phase one included repainting the tables on the cafeteria patio and tidying that area.

The trees will go all around campus. Locations include parking medians, CTE, along entrances, and in the front and back of the school.

Auto body teacher Mr. Robert McClure dug 78 holes over fall break. On Oct. 24, the football team will plant a dogwood in each hole.

“There’ll be nearly eighty holes around campus for about a week and a half,” Mrs. Graham said. “That’ll be fun.”

Each dogwood tree will have white blossoms. Although they will be small trees this spring, Mrs. Graham said that in about five years they will be fully mature.

“They’ll just be little trees when we start out,” she said. “They’ll be be about four or five feet tall, but give it five years and it’ll be really nice.”

While beautification projects have taken place before at Bearden, the addition of these dogwood trees will be the first planting project on such a large scale.

“Hopefully it’ll add some shade and some color, especially in the springtime,” Mrs. Graham said. Hopefully it’ll be beautiful.”

The class of 1978 has had a big impact on Bearden’s appearance for many years, as they also sponsored the maroon and grey BHS sign at the Kingston Pike entrance to the school.