For Release: IMMEDIATE
Date: February 12, 2007

Ribbon cutting marks opening of Sensory Garden for Pre-School at Governor Morehead School

RALEIGH – A ribbon cutting marked the opening of a Sensory Garden for visually impaired and blind pre-school children on Monday at Governor Morehead School. The garden is a gift of a 21-member leadership team from the Legacy Center of Morrisville.

“We are happy to receive this wonderful gift from the Legacy Center’s leadership team,” said Cyndie Bennett, director of the Office of Education Services of the Department of Health and Human Services. “This will provide our preschool children with year-around opportunities to experience the smell, sound, taste and touch of its components.

“The pre-school garden is a complement to the Garden Club of North Carolina’s Martha Franck Sensory Garden in the center of campus that adults and school aged children have enjoyed since 2001.”

A group of more than 50 volunteers created the preschool garden on Jan. 27 in space set aside on the GMS campus near the preschool. Cash and material donations of about $8,000 combined with the volunteer manpower to create the garden, which includes a bench, wind chimes, a birdhouse, herbs, tactile plants, soil, ground coverings, bird feeders and bird baths. Among contributors are John Deere Landscapes, treestogo.com, Smith & Hawken, The Mulch Masters, Target and three Chatham County artists: potter Rusty Sieck, mosaic artist Hannah Barnum and metal sculptor Tamera Mulanix.

The Governor Morehead Preschool provides community-based early intervention and preschool services to children ages birth through five years with diagnosed visual impairments. Services are provided in collaboration with a variety of other agencies and interventionists to ensure that each child's unique needs across all areas of development are addressed. In all settings, a strong emphasis is placed on the provision of service in natural environments.