Fitch football players, Deondray Richard, left, and Jayden Lumsden, right, dig holes for blueberry bushes as Isaiah Porch prepares to measure the holes for proper depth and width.

AUSTINTOWN — Thirty-two members of the Fitch football team, along with Coach T.J. Parker, made the trip Wednesday to St. Blaise Parish on New Road to help plant blueberry bushes in the church’s garden.

They were tasked with preparing 72 holes in the parish gardens that will house blueberry bushes and provide food for the Immaculate Heart of Mary food pantry.

“Our garden used to hold a variety of vegetables,” said garden committee member Jim Merhaut. “Our church has an older population and the annual planting was a little too much, so we decided to go with a permanent crop.”

He said the committee, made up of Merhaut, Carrie Kirchner and Nicole Pugliese, came up with a plan to plant all blueberries. The committee ordered 72 blueberry bushes, but digging that many holes would have been too harsh a task for the older gardeners.

Pugliese presented the committee with the idea of having the Fitch football team do the digging and prep work. Her son Nicholas is a Fitch football player, so she approached Coach T.J. Parker about the idea. Parker went for it and met with the committee in February to plan the event.

“When we sat down in February to plan this out, we picked what we thought would be the best day of the week,” Parker said. “It turned out to be the worst, but it is like football weather.”

He was referring to the weather on Wednesday, which was cold and snowy.

He had a crew of 32 volunteers from the Falcon football team show up. They split up in groups, with some digging the holes, some measuring the holes, some transporting mulch and others transporting fertilizer to each hole, preparing them to receive the plants.

“The plants were supposed to be here from Michigan, but were delayed,” Merhaut said. “They are coming Friday, but we will have the holes done and ready for planting.”

He said the 5,000-square foot garden is in its third year. This year is a little different as St. Joseph on New Road merged with Immaculate Heart of Mary on Norquest Boulevard to become St. Blaise. The garden at the St.Joseph campus helps supply fresh fruit and vegetables to the IHM food pantry and the Ursuline Sisters Ministries, which both serve the poor.

The eventual purpose of the garden helped give the football players a good feeling of helping those less fortunate.

“This is an exciting opportunity for our kids for various reasons,” Parker said. “Most importantly, volunteering plays a pivotal role in building a strong community. We rely on so many to help our program achieve success. When given the chance, we always want to do our part to give back. This project specifically allows us to use our manpower to provide aid to a prominent church in Austintown while also providing so many families with actual fruits of our labor. This also allows our team and community to come together, fostering a sense of belonging, and more importantly cultivating a culture of giving back. Any way we can give back is satisfying and rich for our kids.”

Parker said a good number of families from the team attend Mass at St. Blaise.