Serving And Loving Teens (SALT) received the grateful encouragement and permission of the Tyler County Board of Education to proceed with a memorial garden in the center of the traffic circle at Tyler Consolidated.

Meeting April 28 with the board, Diane Stender, advisor, discussed the project at length, explaining that Thomson’s Landscaping and Garden Center of Marietta, Ohio, had contracted the job for $4,800 to be paid for by the SALT club.

The money came principally through the Winter Sports Program the club designs and sells.

“It is only through the generosity of the local businesses who advertise each year that we are able to do this,” Stender said.

The club also conducts candy bar sales to help raise funds.

Stender said Thomson’s designed placement of the garden to focus on the tree already planted in the middle of the turning circle green in memory of Rick Pyles. Because the tree is expected to grow to 40-feet to 60-feet tall, she was told the garden would be most aesthetically pleasing at the upper end across from the flagpole.

“We had gone to Mrs. (Sandy) Weese (Tyler Consolidated High School principal) and Mr. (Ed) Stombock (Tyler Consolidated Middle School principal) before we did any of this,” Stender said.

With their approval, the SALT club hired Thomson’s who began the project April 28 with completion April 30.

With the garden finished, Stender said guidelines will be drawn up for future development.

“We don’t want anything out there that’s overpowering, but we also don’t want it to look like a cemetery,” she said.

The TCHS Class of 1998 have already dedicated a tree in Jesse Ault’s name with plans for a stone plaque to accent it and with room for additional names as class members pass away. Ault is the first and was killed in Iraq April 9. The request came from Selena Russell, wife of friend Travis who entered the Army with Ault.

“We just wanted to do something to beautify the school, but also something with meaning,” Stender said. “Maybe someone else will do something.”

The SALT club has plans to expand the improvement with a cobblestone walk from the pavement of the traffic circle to the garden next year.

The garden consists of Moonbeam Coreopsis, Morning Light Maiden Grass, Happy Returns Yellow Daylily, Variegated Iris, Becky Daisy, Green Velvet Boxwood, Winter King Hawthorn, Little Henry Sweetspire, Weeping White Pine, Red Knockout Rose, Newport Viburnum and Wine and Roses Weigela with a grey gorge large flagging stone path.

“This is something we wanted to do and just means we won’t be going to Valley Worlds of Fun this year,” Stender said.

And, the project is in keeping with the philosophy of the club: “We believe as members of the Christian SALT Club, that doing practical acts of service in the community provides opportunities to demonstrate the love of God. As our Christian faith is thus acted upon, it is strengthened, making a difference in ourselves, our school, our community and — ultimately — in our world.”

The SALT Club also provides meals at Christmas and other times of the year to those less fortunate. This past holiday season, the SALT Club spent $500 for that project.