Rock Hill school remembers 7-year-old student with Belle’s Garden

Spunky, vibrant, joyful, strong. This is how friends and family members remember 7-year-old Belle Mitchell, who died last year after a long battle with a brain tumor.

This spring, 21 fifth-grade boys at India Hook Elementary School, including Belle’s 10-year-old brother, Jack Mitchell, created a school garden in her memory.

They filled it with blooms of pink and purple, Belle’s favorite colors, including azaleas, gardenias, hydrangeas, day lilies, verbena, Japanese holly and a cherry tree.

“It’s pretty awesome, just like Belle,” Jack said Wednesday, as his all-boy classroom finished installing plants and benches in a sunny patch in front of the school.

Belle, who died on Jan. 17, 2015, after a five-year battle against a rare brain tumor called choroid plexus carcinoma, attended kindergarten and first grade at India Hook.

She loved butterflies and Juicy Fruit chewing gum and she was brave beyond her years, said her aunt, Jennifer Rash, who came from Birmingham, Ala., with her husband, Jason Rash, for the school’s garden installation.

“She changed the world,” Rash said. “She made every moment better, every place better, life better. Just by being in the room with her, you were better.”

Belle’s parents, David and Kelley Mitchell of Rock Hill, were not able to attend Wednesday’s garden installation, but they will be present Tuesday for a garden dedication, Rash said.

She said Belle had two sisters: Emily, 12, and Taylor, 14, both students at Dutchman Creek Middle School.

Andy Morton, the India Hook fifth-grade teacher who oversaw the project, said the dedication will include the installation of dozens of large, colorful square pavers painted in memory of Belle.

School staff members and students who knew Belle painted the pavers with hearts, butterflies, rainbows, Juicy Fruit packages and messages of love and inspiration.

Morton said his classroom does a “challenge-based project” chosen by the students every school year. The idea is to benefit the school or the community, he said, and to require the students to do research in a variety of areas.

“Jack liked the idea of doing a garden because it’s permanent, it’s always changing and it’s bright,” Morton said. “And so we decided to do that.”

Over a four-month period, Morton said, students measured the garden area, researched sun- and shade-loving plants and designed the English-style garden, he said.

“It’s to remember Belle, because she meant so much to our school family,” Morton said. Bright colors were chosen to show “her vibrant attitude, her sassiness,” he said.

Home Depot, Scott’s Garden and other sponsors chipped in to donate the plants, soil, pavers and other items and volunteers helped students build the garden, school officials said.

Rash said Belle was diagnosed with the brain tumor at age 2 and underwent surgery and other treatment at Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte. She also had treatment at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

Rash said Belle was joyful despite the challenges of her ongoing treatment. “She brought a perspective to life that was contagious,” Rash said. “She made you realize what was really important.”

Rash said the garden will give India Hook students a glimpse of Belle and her life for many years.

She said: “I think it keeps Belle’s story alive.”

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Rock Hill school remembers 7-year-old student with Belle’s Garden."