(Almost) hometown heroes build a school garden

Since we’ve just announced our Spring 2013 Green CommUnity School Grant recipients, it seems like a good time to check in with some of the Spring 2012 winners! Read on to learn about one of the amazing projects that came to us as ideas, but is now a fully realized project impacting the environment and students and their community.
At Victoria School in Kamsack, SK, “many students live in environments where they don’t get opportunities to plant gardens and care for them,” despite the strong agricultural base in the area. While implementing their grade 3 curriculum unit on “Plant Growth and Change,” teachers Chantel Kitchen and Colleen Pennell saw a chance to introduce their students to the joys and benefits of vegetable gardening.

They envisioned a garden that would be passed on from one grade 3 class to the next, that would engage the community and the rest of the student body. And that’s just what happened. According to the Kamsack Times, more than 50 people chipped a few Saturdays ago to help the grade 3s finish the project, and, over the course of the school year, local business owners, parents, even the mayor, have helped out, too.

As a result of their work, the students were also nominated for Earth Day Canada’s Hometown Heroes Award, a program that recognizes groups that make significant environmental achievements in their communities.