Margarita & Kerry
Meet Margarita and Kerry, MHS HSA Beautification volunteers!
They met when working on various garden improvements at Frelinghuysen Middle School. From that time forward they knew how each other worked, hard and with a similar vision.
They work so well together, they decided last year to start a business together doing custom flower planters and small landscape design and installation. The Front Planters is very much a business born and honed with a combination of our years working the school district gardens, as well as a connection to the larger community of Morristown.
Volunteer Q&A
Margarita Armington
MHS Beautification Volunteer since 2013
What is your connection to MHS?
I am a parent of two boys who have graduated from MHS. Garran graduated Class of 2016 and Sean Class of 2018. Yes, I am still here.
What do you do for MHS and why do you choose to donate your time in this way?
I started in 2013 as the Chair of the Beautification Committee. This job includes extensive landscaping duties, such as planting, pruning, weeding, watering, etc.
There are currently over 100 new trees and bushes we have added to the campus since 2013.
Our Committee also maintains all flower planters each season, paints walls, purchases new flags, replaced front door signage, bought and installed picnic tables, and improved multiple flower beds along with other tasks.
Our Committee has also hosted many student activities, teaching various classes and hosting sport team volunteers. We inform them about what we do, their responsibility to the larger environment and how to plant, care for and take ownership of a beautiful campus.
Our Committee offers volunteer community service hours.
I have also volunteered with the Senior Citizen Prom, Coffee House, Swim team, voter registration events, school plays, graduation support and fundraising efforts.
I donate my time mainly with Beautification because I feel VERY strongly that a beautiful campus can significantly impact a student’s pride in their school and can let the larger community see us in a better light.
What do you love most about the MHS community?
The variety of students, the extensive extracurricular activities offered to allow all students to find their passion, and the dedication of the parents that support the students is what I love about the MHS community.
From day 1 I looked at the exterior of the school and thought “this doesn’t match the amazing stuff that was happening inside the school” My skills in gardening was the way I wanted to support the gradual upgrades on the outside to let the larger community get beyond “the face” of the building. I am grateful MHS-HSA has joined my vision and supported the work I do on the outside.
Kerry Thomas
MHS Beautification Volunteer since 2015
What is your connection to MHS?
I am a proud MHS alum, Class of 1989. My two daughters, Eileen and Grace, graduated in 2019, and my son, Wesley, currently a sophomore, is the Class of 2026.
What do you do for MHS and why do you choose to donate your time in this way?
I have been part of the MHS HSA Beautification Committee since 2015. The committee has completed a wide range of projects during this time. Some are ongoing projects such as seasonal planters and others are large scale one-time projects such as landscaping the front of the school.
We also help to maintain the campus by designing, purchasing and installing plant material, garbage clean-ups, teaching classes, engaging students in volunteering and lastly, hopefully helping students and staff enjoy the grounds of MHS.
Thankfully, the HSA, and MSD Buildings and Grounds have been extremely supportive of our efforts and have encouraged us, which has made it much easier to achieve our goals.
I volunteer my time to help ensure that the exterior of MHS is a welcome and cared for place for students, staff, and visitors. I want students and staff to be proud of where they go to school and work.
MHS is used by the community as well, and I want visitors to feel welcome and know that we take pride in our campus.
What do you love most about the MHS community?
I love the diversity of the student body and staff of MHS. My years at MHS helped me to become the person I was in college when I left in 1989, and all of the years since.
MHS has provided my kids with an education that exceeds the walls of the classroom, and in most cases it was the staff that helped them get to where they are: the teachers, coaches, advisors, athletic trainers, and security. These mentors care about the students and the relationships they create help to form the students into the adults they are when they graduate.
I wish more people knew that MHS provides students with an experience that is unlike most high schools in the area. With a diverse student body, and a dedicated staff, graduates of MHS can expect to be ready for the adult world, wherever they choose that to be.
Beautification Photo Gallery
Some of Margarita's and Kerry's work over the past 10+ years!
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