If you would like to support the School Garden Project as a member, please print out, fill out and send us a completed membership form.
If you would prefer, you are also welcome to request a membership form in the mail by contacting us.
November 9, 2005
Dear Friend,
I wish you could be with us when we take kids out into their school garden for their first fall visit! School gardens are even more magical than ordinary gardens because the kids leave them in the spring with just tiny seedlings in the ground and then return in the fall to find plants towering over their heads, loaded with tomatoes, beans, corn, and sunflower seeds. If only you could see the excitement and the wonder in the eyes of these children as they hunt for raspberries, dig up potatoes, and pull out multi-legged carrots! Won’t you help grow the School Garden Project of Lane County so that more students can share in these experiences?
Currently, our organization works closely with seven Partner Schools. Our staff communicates with and visits each of these schools on a regular basis to help their garden program by organizing and running garden planning meetings and work parties, writing garden grants, obtaining donated materials, and teaching kids in the garden. We also have nine Member Schools which we serve in a more limited capacity. Over the past 12 months, we have obtained donations of gardening materials worth over $3000 which we have distributed to our Partner and Member Schools.
Since our two paid staff each work only quarter-time, we have worked hard this year to increase the services we can provide by recruiting and utilizing more volunteers. In addition to our wonderful board members, we have other volunteers who update our website, haul materials in their trucks, build garden sheds, and teach kids in the gardens. We are excited by new offers from volunteers to plan irrigation systems, grow vegetable starts, and give us expert advice. We are now an affiliated program with the Lane County Master Gardeners and the Compost Specialists, and this year we hosted a project for the United Way’s Day of Caring. Over the past 12 months, the School Garden Project has received the donation of over 900 volunteer hours.
Just giving a school a place to garden is not enough. We also have been working this year to make school gardens more functional and sustainable. When school gardens have adequate systems in place for irrigation, weed control, composting, and storage, our dedicated teachers and volunteers can spend more time teaching kids and less time on garden maintenance. So far this year we have instituted a large-scale non-toxic weed control program at one of our largest gardens, facilitated the construction of garden sheds at two schools, obtained $800 in grants to improve composting systems at two schools, and we are writing grants to get improved irrigation systems at two schools.
In the past, school gardens in our community have been created and maintained primarily as a grassroots effort. The School Garden Project of Lane County came into existence in a similar manner and has provided invaluable support for more than 30 school gardens on a shoestring budget for the past five years. We are excited to let you know that now things are starting to change! School gardens are finally gaining recognition and support from influential community leaders and institutions. Just look at what has happened in the past year:
We are excited by these opportunities for us to spread the word about the benefits of school gardens to a wider and more influential audience. But we need your help to be able to add these tasks to our plate while also continuing our important work in the school gardens.
With your help, we can continue and expand our work in community outreach, school garden services, volunteer recruitment and coordination, and garden improvement. The fees we charge the schools pay for less than one-fifth of the cost of running our programs. The rest comes from local businesses, organizations, and individuals like you who want kids to have the opportunity to be outside on a regular basis getting their hands in the earth, growing their own food, and connecting with the cycles of nature.
How can you help the School Garden Project of Lane County?
On behalf of the children in our community, I thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Sharon Blick
Executive Director
P.S. The new book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, documents the importance of a relationship with nature for a child’s physical and mental health and development. Won’t you help us give more children the opportunity to connect with nature in a school garden?
