Just in case you can’t remember Keizer Elementary School’s mascot, former Keizer Elementary student Samuel Hayes’ Eagle Scout project will help you remember for years to come.

Samuel, a student at McNary High School, and about 15 of his fellow scouts, friends, parents, and other volunteers donated close to 100 hours of time to spruce up two formerly neglected landscape areas in front of the building.

A former Keizer Colt who one day dreams of becoming a pulmonologist, Samuel organized an effort to beautify two highly visible, front-of-the-school flower beds by thoroughly stump grinding and cleaning the two spaces prior to tucking a variety of new plants into a thick bed of fresh red fir bark mulch.

But the crowning achievement of Samuel’s landscape design is a “green colt” fit for a Disney World exhibit that stands gracefully in front of the front left wall. Sculpted from arbor vitae, the green colt, donated by Bountiful Farms of Woodburn from its world-class Topiary Collection, offers a green greeting to all who enter the building.

The Keizer Elementary staff, parents, students, and community collectively thank you Samuel, for this unique (no other school in Salem-Keizer sports a “living mascot”) and enduring public service gift. We are also grateful to Bountiful Farms, who generously donated all plant materials and to Bark Boys for donating the red fir mulch.

Story and photo submitted by Rhonda Hansen of Keizer Elementary School.