GAHANNA, Ohio — All it takes is a seed sometimes to make an impact in the world. At least that's the thought behind a project that brought an entire community together in Central Ohio.

What You Need To Know

  • SeedAStart will help students who need some extra help to pursue the arts

  • The goal is to raise $10,000

  • Founder Julie Hess said COVID interrupted plans to sell packets of sunflower seeds, so students and those from the community ended up planting 25,000 packets instead 

  • To learn more, you can click here

Julie Hess owns The Art Garden Academy in Gahanna.

She's been painting since she was seven years old. Being one of nine kids, she said her mom made sure to find things to keep her and her siblings active and engaged in things they loved.

Hess got into an art studio to sharpen her craft, but staying in there was difficult because of finances. Little did she know that her teacher wouldn't let money stop her from remaining at the art studio.

“My teacher saw the need and she just let me stay for 20 years,” Hess said. 

Years later, Hess sees the same challenges with students who want to pursue art at her studio.

The only problem is that she hasn't been able to help them all. That's why Hess and a few others decided to do something about it.

The initial idea was to raise $10,000 for arts programming in communities like Gahanna through SeedAStart. She had her students create the designs for sunflower seed packets. They ended up with 25,000 packets.

The plan was to sell them and raise scholarship money for students who needed financial help to continue the arts, be it music, dance or painting. Then COVID-19 came and stopped their plan.

So instead, they brought the community together and decided to plant the sunflower seeds across the street from Hess' studio in what is now called Little Mammoth Meadow.

It's a piece of property that was sitting vacant.

Hess said families planted rows of them and had the chance to watch them grow over time. While they've gotten a chance to see the sunflowers grow, Hess said it's now a place where it can be used for fundraising events, giving the community the chance to plant a seed in students' lives as they pursue the arts. Plus, it allows the community to help “bridge that gap between working families and private arts programming.” 

From Hess' perspective, the sunflower was the best way to represent students in every community and what they'll be able to produce if given the chance to flourish.

So far, the Gahanna Arts Council has already supported SeedAStart.

Hess hopes partnerships with others will help grow the scholarship fund.

In the meantime, she said they may plant another meadow in a different community next year.

To learn more, click here.

Related Stories