An Act of Beauty

A female student planting flowers in a wooden planter. This week, orientation center students took to the roof and got their hands dirty as they replanted the roof garden after a long, cold winter. The students, who purchased flowers from a local greenhouse, prepared the pots and planted the flowers and plants, did it all without using their vision, using sleep shades to block out whatever usable vision they have.

This activity, which has been done in the orientation center for the past four years, comes as a nice break for the students who spend their weekdays in several classes learning non-visual skills to help them become or maintain independence after vision loss. Since the students could not see, they used their hands and noses to get the job done. Choosing the flowers to purchase by smell and touch rather than sight was an interesting experience for Linda Stone, 65, a student from Marshalltown. "It was fun, even sleep-shaded, to go pick up the flowers and feeling around to know where to put them," she said. "I can't wait to see them get big."

Another student, Jim, blogged about the experience on the orientation center's blog "Cane Tracks" and said the activity gave him the confidence to know that he would be able to do some gardening when he returned to his home in southwestern Iowa. Two orientation center students filling dirt into planters.

Orientation center teacher Ric Frambach began this activity after a student thought he couldn't garden any longer after losing his sight. Frambach, being an avid gardener, was interested in dispelling that idea for his student and initiated this activity for the students.

"As a teacher, I’m always looking forward to enrich a student’s experience," said Frambach.

The roof garden provides a nice setting for Department employees, students and guests to enjoy the outdoors. Visitors, Frambach said, often compliment the garden and are wowed by the fact that it was created by blind people.

A close up picture of a female student putting flowers into a pot. "They see it as a worthwhile thing," he said. They are pleasantly surprised there is something like that on the roof. I think when the students hear that it’s a source of pride for them."

Frambach added that it is nice for the students--most of whom live in dorms in the Department's building--to be able to make their temporary homes more their own through this garden.

" A male student arranging yellow and orange flowers in a planter. There’s something to be said for when you’re in a place that’s not your home, it is nice to have the ability to change your environment a little bit and shape it to how you would like it. Every year we have a few students who take to the garden. Every summer, one or two people are just enthralled by it," he said.