Meet Palmer White and Polly Hansen, Lakeview Academy fifth graders and masterminds behind the recently created Lakeview Academy Rock Garden.
Palmer and Polly are both 11 and members of Student Council, treasurer and parliamentarian, respectively, and they came up with the idea to add a rock garden this past fall to the breezeway at Lakeview.
“We saw something that people were doing around Hall County and we thought that was nice, so we thought it would look cool. So, me, Polly and the rest of Student Council decided to make a rock garden. We didn’t want to go to the quarry, so we went to the Nantahala River and me and Polly got in the river while it was raining and we got all these.”
“The water was really cold and it was pouring!” added Polly.
The duo collected about 200 rocks that day (according to Palmer) with Palmer’s grandfather, Broughton Cochran.
“We got them in the back of the truck and drove out of the river. We kept them at my house for a few weeks and then we brought them here,” Palmer said. “The whole fifth grade grabbed a few rocks at a time and put them here.”
The students painted the rocks with inspirational messages for their classmates to read as they arrived at school or changed classes, and each message was approved by a teacher.
“The middle school did all the flag (rocks) for the Olympics. I like the flags because they represents all of the nations. Fourth grade did some of them, too,” Palmer said. 
“I think it adds creativity and reminds you to appreciate the beauty of stuff.”
Polly said her favorite rock was one that was painted with the word “kind.”
“I hope everyone learns more about being kind to each other. Each rock has a kind work or an inspirational sentence,” Polly said.
The Faces of Hall County is a project to showcase the amazing people that live or work in our community. If you would like to nominate an interesting person to be featured please email babernathy@gonorton.com.
