HUGHESTOWN — Fall is in the air and Principal Patrick Bilbow felt it was time to spruce up the grounds at the Martin L. Mattei Educational Campus.
With the help of members of the Middle School Student Council, mums were planted at the school’s marque and littered trash on school grounds was collected.
“The project we are working on today is to spruce up and beautify the original Martin L. Mattei Educational Campus sign, a sign that has been standing here on campus since 1971,” Bilbow said. “This is the second year that I’ve come out with eighth-grade Student Council members to plant mums and spruce up the sign.”
The educational campus houses both the Pittston Area Elementary School, built in 1971, and the Middle School, which was constructed in 1976.
Drew DeLucca, 14, along with Olivianna Vanesko, 13, took part in the planting and clean up project.
“The sign has looked old for a while now and we wanted to come here to plant some flowers and make it look good,” DeLucca said. “The sign looks a lot better now.”
“I think we did pretty well,” Vanesko said. “We dug up the holes, planted mums, raked out the dirt and got the weeds out. I liked doing this project and it brightens it up and gives it some color.”
The group of students planted 12 mums in colors ranging from white, yellow, orange and pink.
“These students talked about getting power out to here to decorate the sign for Christmas after their fall project,” Bilbow said. “When we move into the spring, our next layer of the project is to have the concrete area of the sign power washed and have our art classes put a Pittston Area logo or something about the Patriots on it to make it look like a spruced up art project.”
