Green-Thumbed Fourth-Grader Grows Cotton

Tsongas Industrial History Center park ranger Maryann Zujewski, left, stands with Evan Lundgren and his mother, Marjorie, who successfully grew two cotton plants.

Ten years ago, the Tsongas Industrial History Center started a tradition of passing out cotton seeds to visiting schoolchildren. The Center recently received its first-ever success story from fourth-grader Evan Lundgren of Andover, who has grown two healthy, blooming cotton plants.

Lundgren visited the Center with his third-grade class last March to attend the program Change in the Making. After role-playing as factory workers and farmers from the Industrial Revolution, the students were given the traditional parting gift of seeds from a cotton plant. Many students hang on to the seeds as souvenirs, but Lundgren and his mother, Marjorie, decided to plant them and were shocked when they grew and began blossoming.

“I thought it was cool that the cotton plants actually grew,” says Lundgren. “I thought they would have needed a warmer, more humid place to grow.”

With the upcoming winter season, Marjorie called the Center about adopting the plants. The Lundgrens officially donated the plants and they were placed in the Change in the Making program studio for other students to see.

“I am so happy they will have a safe, warm home,” says Marjorie. “They are very special to us.”

- Morgan Hough

Fourth-grader Evan Lundgren donated his two cotton plants to the Tsongas Industrial History Center.