Poplar Elementary School is FUSD's latest school site to experience a day of beauty and it was conducted with military precision!  On a recent Saturday, Marines stationed at Twentynine Palms joined students, teachers, parents and volunteers in pulling weeds, picking-up trash, and tending the school's garden.

The Marines have been helping out at Poplar for the past couple of years as a way of honoring Phillip Baucus who lost his life in Iraq in 2006.  Phillip was the husband of Kathy Baucus, a fourth grade teacher at Poplar.

Third grade teachers Shayne Riggs and Elaine Phelan laid the assault plan for sprucing up the garden and sketched out murals on the exterior walls of the school.  The Marines and all the volunteers spent the day planting vegetables, herbs and flowers.  They also painted several brightly-colored murals, including a barnyard scene as a backdrop for the garden, a "Dream For the Future' mural to inspire children to read, learn and study, and various sports wall.  They even painted the trash cans around campus!

Take a look at some of their finished projects below: