Sachem High School East student Arianna Schuman beautifies gardens in Stony Brook for Angela's House

A Sachem High School East student has beautified the grounds of a local nonprofit organization that assists families caring for medically frail children.

Arianna Schuman, a junior at the Farmingville school, recently completed landscaping improvements that included the refurbishing of two gardens in Stony Brook for Angela’s House. Her aesthetic efforts ranged from filling the gardens with new bushes and plants to creating a rock garden that features a handful of stones painted with the names of children who have passed away.

Schuman, a Girl Scout, pursued the project as part of her Gold Award, which is the highest achievement attainable within the Girl Scouts of the USA. She is a member of Troop 2466.

“I just really like helping children,” Schuman said of the her inspiration for the upgrades. “The fact that we could actually get it to look really nice and look really welcoming to everybody was a really good feeling. I wanted people to have a safe space to just relax and feel stress free.”

Schuman, 16, is secretary of her school’s Teens as Teachers Club, vice president of its American Sign Language Club, and a member of her school’s soccer and track teams and National Honor Society. She also serves as a junior firefighter with the Farmingville Fire Department.

 — MICHAEL R. EBERT