 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
May 27, 2004
|
|||||
|
|
|
|||
|
May 27, 2004 |
|||||
 |
|
Friends Care garden project sprouts more than vegetables and flowers
Yellow Springs High School sophomores are looking for local families who have a taste for fresh, organic vegetables, an affinity for gladiolas, and the desire to support local young people in a creative, intergenerational fundraising project. Now in its second year, the Friends Care Intergenerational Gardening Project pairs Yellow Springs 15- and 16-year-olds with shovels and dirt, and with local elders. The project has meant hours of hard work for the young people, but some feel the project has paid off in cash raised, lessons learned and friendships begun. “I think it’s an excellent project,” said sophomore Rebecca Guest, who could be found in the hot sun early last Saturday morning shoveling dirt into one of the project’s 29 garden beds at Friends Care Community. “It’s very original. Not many schools have organic gardens to raise money for the prom. And I love working in the garden. It’s calming and meditative.” Rebecca also appreciates the opportunity to meet those who live at FCC. “I’ve met so many people I wouldn’t know otherwise,” she said. During its first summer, the project found eight garden shareholders, who paid $100 each for bunches of fresh flowers and bags of vegetables every week from July through September. This year, the kids and their sponsors have a larger garden and hope to find 20 shareholders. Proceeds from the project will be used to pay for next year’s YSHS prom as well as the Class of 2006 senior trip. And while they hope to raise enough cash for a wonderful prom and a memorable trip, the students seem focused on more immediate benefits. “It’s an incredible project. I don’t know a lot about gardening and I like to learn,” said class member Clara Peters, who has also spent many hours tending the garden. “It benefits both us and the elders.” According to Amy Huneck, a counselor at YSHS and the class’s sponsor, the project began more than a year ago when she and Ohio State Extension Agent Beth Bridgeman began brainstorming ideas for a class project. Why not a garden? suggested Bridgeman, herself a master gardener. Seeking a project that not only raised money but also served the community, the two women hit upon an intergenerational garden located at FCC, where elders could enjoy the garden, interact with young people and offer lessons learned from their years of gardening. Huneck said that Emily Baldwin, the FCC social worker, “jumped on” the project. Next, she and Bridgeman met over pizza with the students and received an enthusiastic response. The class members took responsibility for creating the work schedules, Huneck said. The first year offered many challenges, said Huneck, including working with “hard, lumpy soil” left over from Friends Care’s recent construction project. And it wasn’t always easy to find enough students to tend the garden, although a state grant allowed Huneck to offer stipends of $250 to those who put in 40 hours on top of 15 hours of community service. In an unexpected benefit, gardening together seemed to strengthen the relationships between the young people involved, Huneck said. “The kids who didn’t hang out together seemed to have a different respect for each other because of the hard physical labor,” she said. In July the garden yielded tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers, lettuce, basil, gladiolas and, eventually, one pumpkin. Each Friday the students gathered in the FCC all-purpose room where, with the help of Friends Care residents, they bagged the produce and flowers for customers to pick up. That aspect of the project was a favorite for the elders, said Ronnie Francisco, the director of marketing and admissions at Friends Care. “They’re not able to do the labor themselves anymore and this way they can live it vicariously,” she said. “And they love having the kids here.” After last fall’s harvest ended the young people piled leaves on the bed for mulch. And the project continued for some of the students over the winter, as they visited FCC weekly, chatting with residents and sometimes painting the elders’ fingernails. This spring, the project has benefited from community support, such as a donation of $1,000 from The Antioch Company for a garden shed and donations of supplies from Stutzman’s Nursery. The project has also benefited from the expertise of local master gardeners such as Len Cargan and Bridgeman, who have offered advice, sweat and plants. While heavy rains and the students’ heavy schedules have pushed back planting this spring, the plants, which were sprouted at Central State University and transferred to the Friends Care greenhouse, are now going into the ground. And in a new intergenerational twist, Class of 2006 members have decided that, after graduation, they want to pass on the garden project to the Class of 2010, who are now sixth-graders, so they hope to include those children in some of their efforts. Challenges continue for organizers of the Friends Care Intergenerational Gardening Project. The biggest is getting enough people involved so that the same 10 people don’t end up doing all the work, said class member Liz Brown. And FCC employees sometimes find it difficult to plan residents’ activities at a time when students can attend, Francisco said. “We’re learning as we go,” she said. But even though the project sometimes feels overwhelming, Huneck finds everything worthwhile when she sees FCC residents coming out to see the garden and when the kids go inside for a chat with the elders. “It’s not just fundraising. We’re really trying to be intergenerational,” she said. “The biggest piece is the relationship building.” Those interested in buying shares in the Friends Care Intergenerational Gardening Project should contact Amy Huneck at Yellow Springs High School, 767-7224.
|
|
