PL AY LIKE A PRO

The school for grades six through eight is the brainchild of Ben Payne, who until last spring directed the Upper School at Greensboro Montessori School. Cupit also works for the school, managing the garden. The more the two men talked, the more Cupit warmed up to Payne’s idea of establishing a school on the farm.

“I wanted to carry out the educational opportunity here, trying to combine the academic vigor of a liberal arts school with the experience of being on a farm,” Payne said. “Aubrey’s got a beautiful spot here.”

Motorists have probably seen Cupit’s farm stand at the corner of Pleasant Ridge Road and Lazy Creek Lane, the gravel road that leads to the farm. For several years, Cupit worked for other farmers and helped them sell at local farmers markets before buying nine acres on the stretch of Pleasant Ridge Road between Fleming and Lewiston roads.

Although the School at Gate City Harvest is Payne’s venture, Cupit said he “offered my space for him to start it” because he believes his farm is wellsuited for being an instructional model for young people.

The school opened last August. This spring semester, its five-day-aweek enrollment includes four students who have been homeschooled by their parents. Tuition is $1,000 a month, with scholarships available, according to Payne.

The homeschooling parents “are choosing us over themselves to deliver a higher level of instruction,” he said.

“I bring to Aubrey’s farm, to work with these amazing young people, and to help build community around the authentic pursuit of the best for our children, our families, and our future,” Payne wrote on the school’s website. ...continued

30 years

Rich and Kathy Dumas began building in the Triad in 1992. Since then, R&K has become a respected, multi-gold award-winning home builder. Having built over 500 homes ranging in price from the $500,000s to $2 million, our wide range of construction and design types separates our company from the others. We’ll walk you through every detail as we show you our passion for not just crafting homes, but building memories. Our challenge to produce the best never ceases.

An association of professionals supporting each other and our community

To join or for more info, email info@summerfieldmerchant.com or visit www.summerfieldmerchant.com or Facebook.com/SummerfieldMerchantsAssociation

READING, WRITING AND RADISHES

...continued from p. 22

“At a time when we are being bombarded with toxic and destructive messaging (social media and countless other ways), and when optics tend to drive decision-making in our culture, our community at Gate City Harvest relies on a symbiotic relationship, authentic care, and the pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful,” he continued.

Thanks to Oak Ridge Physical Therapy in Summerfield for hosting our Feb. 7 meeting! We enjoyed the food, camaraderie and presentation by Andy Michels, owner (photo above, left) and Chad Parker, Director of Physical Therapy (photo

The school follows the Guilford County Schools calendar. Each day starts in the dome with instruction in English language arts, math, history and wellness. During the afternoon, learning moves outside where the setting provides opportunities in art and “science of the farm,” consisting of get-your-handsdirty instruction in biology, chemistry and earth sciences.

SMA President Patti Stokes (right) was happy to present our association’s first G.A.B (Going Above and Beyond) Award to Cyndi Brown (left), our longtime member, faithful volunteer and SMA co-founder, along with her husband, Dr. Rod Brown of Summerfield Family Chiropractic.

Welcome to our two newest members: Stephanie Rothe, Movement Mortgage, and Jennifer Mun, Bistro 150

Join us at our next meeting on Tuesday, March 7, at 6:30 p.m. To RSVP, email info@summerfieldmerchant.com

“Ben has definitely structured the day for optimal learning, but there’s also an innate sense of freedom on the farm,” said Joan Lindley, a retired public school teacher who volunteers at the Gate City Harvest school one afternoon a week.

After supervising the students in a language arts-based creative activity, Lindley leads what she calls “a walk and talk with Joan” around the farm. The children identify vegetables and fruits in the fields and trees in the woods.

Last fall, the children gathered persimmons. Payne turned the adventure into a lesson, requiring the students to use their math skills to figure out the ingredients needed for making persimmon pudding.

“The environment is like every kid’s dream,” said Sherene Zavitz, who enrolled her daughter, Soraya, in the School at Gate City Harvest last August.

“They get theory taught on the board and with hands-on sessions outside,” she said. “For some children, it’s easier to apply that type of reasoning and that type of learning when you’re physically seeing it and physically doing it, rather than writing it out on paper.”

As spring arrives, students will design and build beds for vegetables. Not only will they learn how to plant, they will also learn how their efforts create “value” in the form of food that they and others can eat, according to Cupit.

And when their plants wither and die, they’ll also learn about failure.

Over the past seven years, Cupit has learned such lessons on his farm. Starting out, he said, he grew too many varieties of tomatoes before realizing that “people mainly want a pink, a purple, a red and maybe a cherry mix.”

Early on, Cupit raised laying hens for eggs. However, foxes liked to eat his chickens, so he now buys eggs locally for customers who buy from his farm online and at the farm stand. He also grew too many eggplants, so he now mainly grows enough to sell to Jerusalem Market, an outlet for Middle Eastern foods.

“You learn your customers and what they want to buy,” said Cupit, explaining that he believes students are going to learn, as he did, that “the farm is a perfect example of diversity and relationships.”

Cupit grows his crops without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. He plants cover crops (plants intended to cover the soil rather than to be harvested) to promote the success of the vegetables he plants later. These methods are part of his commitment to holistic, environmentally friendly farming practices known as permaculture.

“Everything you do is interconnected, and the success of the growing is dependent upon every system supporting each other,” Cupit said. “Nature is the best demonstrator of this. In a sense, the farm cultivates good people with strong character.”

By learning through trial and error, Payne said he believes his students will learn patience and resolve. On the other hand, he said, traditional education is part of “a transactional culture” in society driven by the immediacy of social media. Too often, disrespectful comments on sites such as TikTok draw immediate disrespect in return, he said.

“There’s no conversation about what it means for your community or the world at large,” Payne said. “When you get immediate satisfaction, then you’ve got no appreciation for time and no appreciation for work.”

Othon Nascimento, who enrolled his daughter, Paola, in the school last August.

While the lack of a traditional school building may concern some parents of potential students, Nascimento said he’s pleased with the environment because of the interaction of students with teachers and the level of the instructors’ professionalism. He said he also appreciates that parents are invited to eat lunch with their children and on Fridays they prepare meals from the vegetables grown on the farm.

“Our daughter is very engaged,” Nascimento said. “Some days, she doesn’t want to leave the school.”

want to know more?

For more info about Gate City Harvest, visit www.gatecityharvest.com. For more info about the School at Gate City Harvest, visit www.theschoolatgch.org.

“That’s what we want for our daughter – to be a better human being and a better citizen of the world,” said

welcome to ... Youth Sync

A regular section in the Northwest Observer focused on our local youth and the adults who positively impact them.

Two Locations

SUMMERFIELD – Aubrey Denton, a Summerfield resident and eighth grader at Triad Baptist Christian Academy, recently won Northwest Guilford VFW Post 7999 Patriot’s Pen for the third consecutive year. The Patriot’s Pen is one of two essay contests the local VFW holds, with winners advancing to the district level of competition; this year Aubrey also won at the district level (for the second consecutive year), and advances to the state competition.

Aubrey’s essay prompt was “My Pledge to Veterans.” In her essay she shared that her father and grandfather both served in the military, and when she was younger, her mother toured the country singing for veterans; those experiences helped instill in her both a sense of pride and gratitude toward veterans.

“Veterans have always been our first line of defense,” Aubrey wrote. “They have willfully provided aid and protection against our enemies.

Despite those positive influences, unfortunately, many Americans get complacent over time and choose not to show gratitude to our veterans. Today, I’m making a pledge to never be complacent about honoring our veterans.

“Without our veterans we would not have the peace, safety, and religious freedoms that we have today,” she continued. “President Lincoln once affirmed it is our duty, ‘To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.’ He spoke of the solemn sacrifice that veterans made and the gratitude that should be present towards them and their families… I may only be in eighth grade, but my appreciation for those who served has no limits. I promise as I age, I will always show my gratitude towards those who put their lives on the line for me to live the American dream.”

Aubrey volunteers with Triad Honor Flight, a nonprofit started by Stokesdale resident Alison Huber that sends local veterans on an all-expense paid one-day trip to Washington, D.C., to visit war memorials and honor their comrades.

Leah McCorquodale, a senior at Cornerstone Charter Academy, earned her Girl Scout Gold Award earlier this month.

For her Gold project, Leah created fun and interactive learning math and science games for elementary school students.

A member of Troop 02419, Leah has been involved in Scouting for the past 11 years, and has enjoyed learning about and demonstrating community service, leadership and commitment.

Leah is the daughter of Tyler and Dona McCorquodale.