The birds are chirping and leaves are turning. It might be fall, but Patrick Dorough is making a new place for bees and butterflies to pollinate.
Thompson High School Senior Patrick Dorough is making the pollination world bigger at Veteran's Park in Alabaster. Dorough worked with the Cahaba River Coalition, serving as the first THS student in the Environmental Leadership Program.
"It's a nonprofit organization based within the Upper Cahaba River Region, which is like Birmingham, Alabaster, Helena, those areas," said Dorough. "Basically their main purpose is protecting the Cahaba and the environment around it, form pollution and things like that."
Dorough says his love for the outdoors sparked his passion for gardening and helping the environment.
"I’ve always loved the outdoors, and my mom, she is a big gardener and that kind of influenced me to start gardening," said Dorough.
Everyone has different ways to relax, whether its religion, music, or surrounding yourself with others. Patrick says he finds peace and relaxation by spending time in nature.
"Whenever I'm out in nature I really like to just dwell in God's creation," says Dorough. "It brings me like, a lot of peace to just be able to see these things grow and like the science and all the creation in all of it."
Dorough said that he is so grateful for all the people he has met through this program and the help he has been given.