The aviary at Spring Hill Elementary, made possible by local donors, is a big hit.
By MATHEW WASSERMAN
Published October 27, 2005
SPRING HILL - The crowded Spring Hill Elementary School campus has a new center of attention. The long-anticipated aviary has been completed, and it's an instant hit.
"It's been in the works for a while, but now that it's done, it's already something we're really proud of," said community services teacher Karen Mancuso.
The idea for the aviary came about last spring when teachers and administrators, including Mancuso and principal John DiRienzo, brainstormed about what they could do to make the school's aviation loop a little more interesting. They tossed around the notion of some picnic tables and giant umbrellas, but finally landed on the idea of a giant bird cage.
"Over the summer it just kept evolving, and now we have this beautiful aviary," DiRienzo said.
The 5- by 15-foot aviary is its own little jungle sitting smack in the middle of the busy campus.
The inside perimeter is lined with troughs of exotic plants. In the back right corner, a 2-foot waterfall cascades down a rough rock. A couple of bird cages and feeders sit high up along the aluminum skeleton, waiting to be used by the cockatiel and two parrots.
Yet the most interesting thing about the aviary is that it's not tucked away in a classroom or hidden in the back of the school, where only a few people at a time could see it during class.
"We wanted it to be centrally located," DiRienzo said. "We wanted it in a place where students and faculty will constantly be walking by."
Now, as the screened-in cage sits in its pivotal location, students can observe in it some of the poignant realities of nature.
For example, there are three birds, but the cage is equipped to hold a maximum of 15 to 20. The school plans to add another couple of birds to the mix, and what they do in their cage is their business.
"If more birds are born in the cage, that's fine," Mancuso said. "That's part of life, and we'll deal with situations of the birds' interactions as they come up. And if we start hatching more birds than the cage can fit comfortably then we'll give some of the birds away to students or people that want them."
Students will also have some firsthand experiences with nature because they will take care of the birds.
"Under our supervision, the students will be changing the water, cleaning the floors and everything else in the cage, putting in fresh bird seed and just watching out for problems in the aviary," Mancuso said.
Although those seem to be the kind of chores elementary school kids hate doing at home, there is a list of more than 200 students who want to volunteer for aviary maintenance.
"Students that want to do this have to apply for the job by writing about why they want it," Mancuso said. "Students are so interested in it that one fourth-grade girl wrote a 20-page report on birds for her application."
So why do so many students want to do what they would normally call annoying, burdensome chores? Because, as many of them said, they love birds and little waterfalls.
"My favorite thing is the rock that shoots water," said Michael Anderson, a 6-year-old kindergartener. "I also think it's nice that the birds have a place to live. I like the cockatiel because it has orange cheeks."
Another kindergartener, Marceddes Barrett, agreed that the waterfall and cockatiel are the highlights.
"The waterfall is really cool because you can put your hand in it and it gets wet," Marceddes said. "And I like the birds because you can pet them, but mostly the cockatiel because its face is yellow."
The Spring Hill Elementary aviary is the result of a partnership between the school and the business community.
Nicholson Engineering designed the foundation to withstand winds of 120 miles per hour, so if another hurricane comes, the aviary won't fly away any farther than the birds can.
Lowe's of Spring Hill had five of its employees put in the plants, birdhouses, feeders, waterfall, two observation swings and other features in the aviary.
Hernando Aluminum supplied and built the framework for the cage. Jess Maeder, the company's business manager, said one of the reasons he got involved was sentimental.
"I went to school here as a kid," Maeder said. "So when Karen Mancuso called and told me about the project, I really wanted to be a part of it. It gives the school character and a personification that not many schools have."
Other contributors include Babies and Beyond Pediatrics, Gould Concrete and the school district's maintenance department.
The aviary opened on a recent Monday. The response so far has been so positive that DiRienzo said he is considering putting another one in the school's courtyard.
"It's just such a great feature for the school," said DiRienzo. "Teachers can incorporate it into their curriculum for any subject. It really helps beautify the campus, and it's another great source of pride for the school."
As a testament to the power of the bird cage: When the dismissal bell rings at the end of the school day, students aren't racing off the campus to go home and play. They have been going straight to the aviary after school, so much so that the school safety patrol keeps having to corral them to their buses or parents' cars.
