The Education by Gardening program at FHC is blessed this summer with a busy schedule serving children from Fervent Prayer Outreach Ministries Church, Zion Hill Baptist Church, Oasis of Hope Baptist Church, Edna Martin Center, and IPS #51.

 

This summer's activities have been made possible by grants from the Summer Youth Program Fund (SYPF) Partners: Annie E. Casey Foundation and from Lilly Endowment. Additional aid has come by way of the Lilly Day of Service with donations of man power along with plants, compost, mulch, and hand garden tools, etc., Community Hospital's Wellness Program's donation of a RN's time, Jr. Master Gardener guidance and volunteers from Purdue Extension/Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB), science kits from Lilly's Science Education Outreach, and an intern from the Indianapolis Peace Institute. Of course nothing would be possible without the donation of time and energy from many volunteers who lovingly work with the Indianapolis inner city youth and in our garden.

 

This final week of camp included a visit by Lilly Endowment representatives, a visit by deaf and blind students, and youth volunteers with KIB (Keep Indianapolis Beautiful) in addition to our regular campers and activities. More on each of these follow the camp summary below.

 

Summer Education by Gardening Week 8 July 28-July 31 

Themes:

Vermi-composting final follow-up

Life of a child in rural Ethiopia

Harvesting in the garden

Anti-drug discussion and how drugs can keep you from your dreams

Garden storybooks

 

This week is the final week for 2009 Education by Gardening "camp". We thank you for following along in our adventure. As often happens when something draws to an end, this week was full of activity and a couple of surprises. The week started off with a disappointment as Tuesday's campers were a "no show" for the second week in a row. However, campers during the remainder of the week did not disappoint. In fact, nearly all of Friday's campers joined Thursday's campers this last week, as they had an opportunity to participate in special end of summer activities at their center on Friday and they did not want to miss the last week of gardening activities.

 

Our nutritionist led campers in a discussion about bad drugs. They were encouraged to draw pictures of what the wanted to be when they were grown. Then each camper shared their dream with others and how participating in drugs use would have a negative impact or prevent their dream from ever being achieved. They also learned which parts of their bodies smoking and alcohol affected. The campers were eager to share stories about what they knew about the wrongs of smoking, alcohol and drugs.

 

Continuing efforts to engage campers in reading, especially about garden related topics, campers either read Weslandia by Paul Fleischman or a books brought by the Brightwood librarian on Thursday: A Gardener's Alphabet by Mary Azarian, Sunflower House by Eve Bunting, or Grandma's Garden by Elaine Moore.

 

This being the final week for campers to do gardening, they harvested carrots, squash, green beans, sweet green peppers, strawberries, zucchini, and green tomatoes. While harvesting, they were encouraged to taste some of the produce and to smell and taste herbs. Over the weeks they have been attending our camp, they have become more open to tasting vegetables fresh from the garden. This is possible because we do not use any chemicals in our garden.

 

Campers got a different experience this last week at camp. The experience was to let campers know how the rural poor in Ethiopia live without TV and conveniences we consider necessities. They learned about rural Ethiopian schools and how student cram together to sit barefoot on a narrow bench and practice their letters and math by writing in the dirt with their fingers. They saw native dress and hair styles and hear native music. Many of them saw their name written in Amharic (Aramaic), the Ethiopian language. Did you know that coffee was discovered first in Ethiopia? Campers know that hyper goats who had feasted on coffee beans led to its discovery.  They saw raw coffee beans and learned how Ethiopians roast the beans. The highlight of the experience was the opportunity to taste Ethiopian food: injera (bread) and watt (mild or spicy lentils).

 

The final activity has grown to be one of the camper's favorities; checking out the vermi composting. They were eager to hold the worms and to see how fat and long they had grown over the past 5 weeks. Food scraps have disappeared and there is more compost in each bin. After camp is over, the vermi composting bins will be emptied into the compost pile to allow the worms to continue their work.

 

Friday's few remaining campers from Oasis of Hope brought their usual contributions to the various recycle bins and to the compost pile. It is fun to watch them grab the shovels to cover their food scraps with dirt in the pile. They also helped pull weeds spread compost over the perennial plants that surround the garden with a group of volunteers from the Disciples of Christ Assembly.

 

Each day ended with a snack of veggies and dip, which was in addition to the Ethiopian food they had the opportunity to eat. Groups were given feedback forms with opportunity to rate this year's activities. These results will help us to make plans for next year's Education by Gardening to be even better.

 

Scroll to the bottom of this page to see picture highlights from our last week of camp. Click on the day if you want to see all of Wednesday's pictures or all of Thursday's pictures of campers.

 

Lilly Endowment's Visit

Our Thursday campers were visited by one of our sponsors, Lilly Endowment. While on tour with the President of FHC they were able to see campers participating in this week's activities as listed above. Upon the conclusion of their visit, the executive director presented Lilly Endowment representatives with a framed picture of campers in various gardening activities as a way of thanking them for their support.

Click here to read more about the Lilly Endowment visit.

 

Visit by Deaf and Blind Students

Again, on Thursday, our garden was visited by deaf and blind students and their teachers. These students were able to have a garden experience while they were here. They brought items to contribute to our recycle bins, they dug some mulch and were able to go through the garden and touch many of the plants.

 

Here are a few pictures of the students having a garden experience:

 

 

KIB Interns

Also on Thursday, KIB Interns helped put a walkway in place and painted benches and picnic tables that had been built in earlier weeks of camp. The walkway will enable entry to our building without walking through mud after rain.

 

KIB volunteers working:

 

 

 

Highlights of the last week at "Garden Camp":

 

Ethiopian style school bench and writing on a dirt "tablet" and a final check on the worms

 

 

Drug free-"What I can be" and Ethiopian culture

 

 

Friday's camper's from Oasis of Hope harvesting and digging up weeds

 

 

A supporter from Major Tool & Machine Inc with some of our youth volunteers and campers and FHC's Executive Director preparing veggie cup snacks