VAIL, Ariz. (KGUN) — A new program through the Vail School District is giving students with special needs a hands-on education to prepare them for life beyond high school.
The THRIVE program pairs students with local businesses, where they gain employment skills and real-world experience.
At Four Arrows Garden Center in Vail, students learn everything from merchandising plants to watering and pruning.
For THRIVE student Marina McBrady, the greenhouse has become a place to discover her strengths.
“At the garden, I usually like to pot stuff,” she said. “It’s fun, that’s my specialty. And also water plants.”
Marina says she hopes to enter a career that involves caring for animals and wants to find her own place in a community home sometime next year.
Program coordinator Kendra Davis said the experience helps students grow more independent over time.
“As our students spend time working out here, particularly at the garden, they’re building their confidence and their own self-esteem knowing that they have skills to do things that are meaningful,” Davis said. “Some of our students have needed significant support when they first started, but as time goes on, they are able to become more and more independent.”
Davis says the program aims not only to build independence but also to strengthen bonds between students and their community.
Four Arrows co-owner Linsay Chavez, who opened the garden center with her husband in 2020, said she’s proud to see her business help students learn.
“They’ll do a lot, from merchandising plants to putting labels on plants for us,” Chavez said. “They actually help in our little plant hospice area. They prune, and they help us fertilize and put fish emulsion on plants.”
The program also realizes Chavez’s goal of making Four Arrows a community destination for learning. Before opening the center, she taught her children how to care for desert plants, wanting to make people, particularly those from outside the desert, less intimidated by caring for desert-adapted plants.
The family began selling plants out of their home during the pandemic, when gardening became popular as a pastime while many were stuck at home. Soon after, Linsay and her husband, Manuil, opened Four Arrows.
Chavez said the most rewarding part is watching the students take pride in their work. “They get to see things bloom and see things that they cared for go from a seedling to this blooming plant,” she said. “That’s so rewarding for them, and for us to see their reaction as well.”
THRIVE is an extension of the district’s Transition to Work (TSW) program, which supports “super-seniors,” or students with disabilities ages 18 to 22.
In addition to Four Arrows, students have partnered with Tractor Supply, Walmart, and Michael’s, where they practice grocery shopping and purchase supplies for their student-run T-shirt business.
More information about Thrive can be found on the Vail School District’s website.
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Joel Foster is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9 who previously worked as an English teacher in both Boston and the Tucson area. Joel has experience working with web, print and video in the tech, finance, nonprofit and the public sectors. In his off-time, you might catch Joel taking part in Tucson's local comedy scene. Share your story ideas with Joel at joel.foster@kgun9.com, or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram or X.
