View Comments STAUNTON — It was a late Wednesday morning in April, and 13-year-old Michaela White was helping prepare for an upcoming plant sale at Shelburne Middle School. When she first signed up for the elective, the seventh-grader had some concerns about working with plants in a greenhouse. It's not something with which she'd had much experience. Now, though, she loves the work. "I like how relaxing and peaceful it is," White said. "I like being around plants." That's music to the ears of her teacher, Ryan Blosser. He first discovered a similar love of being around plants years ago while living in Hawaii. After moving back to the Shenandoah Valley, and before he was a teacher, Blosser worked as a director at Staunton-based Project Grows, a nonprofit organization working to improve the health of children through garden-based education.