DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Students from a landscaping class at the Pennsylvania College of Technology work on the Remembrance Garden near Jersey Shore High School. The garden was started in memory of football player Max Engle. The PCT students have worked for about 12 weeks on the project.

JERSEY SHORE – A year ago, students at the Jersey Shore Area High School were busy planting trees, the first step in creating a Remembrance Garden honoring their classmate Max Engle. As April winds down, the project is now nearing completion under the direction of Dr. Michael Dincher, assistant professor of horticulture at Pennsylvania College of Technology, and his students.

The garden site, located near the High School’s tennis courts, was a hub of activity on a recent morning as a group of about a dozen or more Penn College students prepared the ground for seeding grass, spread mulch and basically put the finishing touches on the work that they had been doing seven hours a week during the spring semester. This is the last day of work for them as the semester will soon end. Some of the students will take what they’ve learned with them as they graduate in less than two weeks.

“We start out in the classroom for the first couple of weeks. We’ve got to do a little book work and interpretations of things until we get in the field,” Dincher shared.

The students are in the landscaping program and the project has offered them the opportunity to take their education out of the academic arena and into a real-life situation, something that Dincher is eager to do with his classes.

“It’s hard to get students engaged in that if it’s not real,” Dincher said.

“I’ve been doing this class for over 30 years. As soon as I came in, I got out of that laboratory setting, where they’re just building and tearing down,” he said.

Where last year there was a row of pine trees, a pathway, delineated by pavers, leads to an area where there is a wall which will display not only Engle’s name, but also the names of other students who have passed or might pass in the future – a remembrance wall.

Engle was a senior at the high school when he was injured in a football game and later passed away. His classmates in the 2024 Senior Class began fundraising for the garden. The response from the public was greater than they had expected and the scope of the project grew.

The pavers were donated by a local business, Engle’s family donated some of the benches at the garden and of course all the design work and use of equipment from the college-not to mention the hours of work – have made the project a gift from the community for the community.

Engle’s classmates are expected to return for the dedication of the garden, according to Michele Persun, a teacher at the school and their class adviser. Plans are to have something this month after the former students return from college.

Where the landscaping students were putting mulch along the walkway created by the pavers, Persun said there will be shrubs planted by the returning seniors, who planted the trees last year.

“I’m hoping that our kids can get dirty so that they have some ownership to this as well,” she said.

Even in its unfinished state, there is a peacefulness about the garden, which has been one of the goals for the project since it was first conceived.

“I know a teacher had brought some students down to the facility last week on one of the nice days and she said it was so peaceful and calm,” Persun said.

“It’s not finished yet, but it’s going to be a great space for everyone in the community, and that’s what we’re most excited about,” she said.

“It’s just a great spot for anyone to come and visit,” she added. “We want the community to come and enjoy it. Come have a seat.”