Despite the recent 90-degree weather and humidity, Toll Gate High School senior Jasmine Gallo-Fuscio has been hard at work on her senior project over the past two weeks painting flowers, grass, butterflies, and lady bugs on the fence at the Unique Fitness & Massage Therapy on Quaker Lane in West Warwick.

Unique Fitness is a personal training and aerobics studio with a “homey atmosphere” featuring one-on-one sessions, small group yoga classes, and massage therapy.

Since Gallo-Fuscio wanted to incorporate working with special needs students as part of her project, she was able to team up with Thomas Hanke, who graduated from Toll Gate last year and is a member of the Vocation Transitional Program at the school, which helps students 18 to 21 with Individualized Education Programs (IEP) be better prepared to enter the job market when transitioning from high school.

The program, which was started by Toll Gate special education teacher Carol Allen in the fall of 2014 following a successful pilot, helps students work on cultivating their job skills, social skills, independent living, and self-advocacy skills.

Claudia Botthof, who co-owns Unique Fitness with her husband and was a former physical education teacher that worked with special needs students at Toll Gate, served as Gallo-Fuscio’s senior project mentor.

“I consider myself lucky. I love the special needs students and have worked with them for 16 years,” she said. “It’s great to have students from the vocation transitional program come in to work with us at the fitness studio, which they do on a bi-weekly basis.”

Since Hanke was also involved in a Work Partnership Program through CCAP, in which he would be paid for 30 hours of work, Botthof said she thought the fence project would be a great way for both Gallo-Fuscio and Hanke to fulfill their project needs.

“We bought the building a year ago and the fence needed a lot of work, so I thought it would be a good idea for Jasmine and Tom to work on it together,” Botthof said, adding the two received some help from her niece, Laura Irrgang, who was visiting from Germany for the summer.

“I had the inspiration for the project, but I wasn’t sure how it would go and what the flowers would like,” Gallo-Fuscio said. “At first they started out flat and were just one color, but over time we got more and more creative using stencils, sponges, paintbrushes and rollers.”

Hanke said he enjoyed working with Gallo-Fuscio and everyone who helped out.

“It’s been a very good experience working outside every day, and it’s been great to paint the fence and learn how to paint and do it well,” he said. “My favorite part was learning how to paint the fence with the brushes and the rollers, learning the different techniques and how to paint the grass.”

Gallo-Fuscio said she enjoyed the creative process.

“It’s nice to have a bunch of creative differences to come up with something really cool on the fence, and to use different techniques,” she said. “I’m glad I got to do this for my senior project. It’s been the most fun project I’ve done in school.”

Gallo-Fuscio said she wants to work with special needs students in the future and this project gave her an opportunity to get a sense of what that would be like, which is something she wouldn’t have been able to experience in the classroom.

“It was a lot of hard work, but it was an opportunity to learn more and to learn how to work with special needs students,” she said. “I learned how to give instructions and communicate with Tom and build a friendship. He didn’t talk a lot at first, but as I got to know him, I realized how intelligent he is and that he has a lot of goals, which really inspired me. He’s a great person and can do a lot, and he dreams big.”

Irrgang said she also had fun working on the project.

“I enjoyed getting to know Jasmine and Tom while painting the fence and learning what Tom wants to do, which is to move out to California and become an actor,” she said.

Botthof said Gallo-Fuscio worked more than the 15 hours needed to fulfill the senior project requirement, coming in from 8 to 11 a.m. Monday through Thursday for the past two weeks. She said Hanke stayed an extra hour each day. In addition to the painting, she said Gallo-Fuscio researched the project beforehand and the fence had to be power washed before any painting could begin.

“They’ve done an awesome job,” Botthof said. “The neighbors have been stopping by and saying what a great job they did. It’s been a really good experience for everybody and it’s been fun.”