WATSONVILLE — About eight years ago, New School Community Day School teacher Louis LaFortune began working on a garden there with a handful of his fellow teachers.
LaFortune’s friends and coworkers said the summer project fit in with LaFortune’s sense of social justice and his passion for providing positive activities for his students.
LaFortune died unexpectedly in March 2016, before the garden was completed. But that did not put a damper on the desire to see the project through to its end.
A little more than a year later, students, staff and the people who knew LaFortune gathered at the school for a brief ceremony dedicating the Louis LaFortune Memorial Garden.
One bench, donated by the Watsonville Environmental Science Workshop, sits in one end of the garden.
The centerpiece, however, is another bench bearing a plaque with LaFortune’s name, which sits under an awning that also bears his name.
Throughout the garden are various planters in which flowers bloom and vegetables grow, all of which serve a dual purpose of being de facto science experiments, teacher Bryan Love said.
Principal Artemisa Cortez said she remembers walking by LaFortune’s classroom, the unextinguished lights a sign he was still working.
“His light will always be on because he was always here for his students,” she said. “Mr. LaFortune was a great man, and what we have here is a small token for him.”
Teacher Denise Henry, who started the garden project with LaFortune, said she remembers when the garden was a barren strip of dirt.
“He had a vision of a beautiful garden, and now it’s here,” she said. “Louis wanted the world to be fair and good for everyone. And he didn’t just talk. He did something about it.”
Former student Margarita Ruiz, who graduated in 2009, said that, when LaFortune was first hired, students took note of his calm demeanor and underestimated him.
“I remember thinking, ‘no, he’s not going to make it here,’” she said. “But we were wrong.”
Nearly everything in the garden, both materials and labor, was donated by companies and organizations including Sunrise Nursery, K&D Landscaping, Inc. and the Watsonville Environmental Science Workshop.
A truck brought a load of donated mulch Wednesday, which was spread by a team of students.
The final step before the Friday ceremony was spreading a pile of donated decorative rocks around a topiary spelling out “Aztecs,” the school’s mascot.
Siblings Kelsie and Shane White, who will take over the K&D Landscaping, Inc. business from their parents, said the donation was part of their business philosophy of doing a community-based project at least once a month.
“We’re part of this community,” Kelsie White said.
Former student Jairo Rocha said that working in the garden is an ideal activity for students who need a positive direction in which to direct their energy.
“Louis taught us other choices,” Rocha said. “He tried to teach us right from wrong, and this is one way to do it.”
