By Angel Espinoza

Pacing the walk-way in front of Miami Senior High’s main building you’ll notice some strong, tall, and proud palm trees with flowers branching out from them. The flower is an orchid, which is widely known for growing on wooden structures. For the past two years, Miami High’s assistant principal Mr. Felix Zabala has worked very hard on the “Orchid Project” to make Miami High more beautiful than it already is.

Mr. Zabala was inspired during a visit to his son’s school back in August of 2012, where he noticed an orchid growing out of a palm tree. Miami High was still under construction at the time, and with all the palm trees around the school, it seemed like a good idea to Mr. Zabala to decorate the trees with orchids.

The project was first brought up in December of 2012, but wasn’t officially launched until February of 2014. “It’s a long term project that is starting to receive attention from the staff and even the students,” said Mr. Zabala

Freshman Vieri Sanchez recently found about the project and said, “Hopefully I can get an orchid to donate it by this weekend.”

There’s no doubt that the Orchid Project is having an effect. Senior Esly Perret said, “I think it’s a good idea. It makes our school look nicer.”

Aside from making our school look better, the project can also land students a total of twenty community service hours. Senior counselor Ms. Echeverria said, “I encourage kids to bring orchids so they can get community service hours.”

The goal of the project is to plant one-thousand orchids, so the school can earn the title of “The Garden of One- Thousand Orchids.” So far Mr. Zabala has put up 168 orchids. With the recent increase in donations of orchids, Mr. Zabala hopes to start student groups to help with the planting of the orchids soon.

Editor's note: This article appeared in the October, 2015 issue of the Miami High Times.  As of May 20th, the "Orchid Gnome" reports that 420 orchids have been installed!