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Groundwork Somerville News! |
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GWS Upcoming Events!
In the next few months, Groundwork Somerville will participate in many events across the region. Here are a few!
Argenziano Garden Work Day: Wednesday, June 4th, 12pm at the Argenziano School at Lincoln Park (Union Square) -- Come help create a new garden in our community!
Bikes Not Bombs Green Roots Festival: Sunday, June 8th, Stony Brook T Station: 12-5:30pm (GWS staff will be riding and tabling!)
Green Team start date: Monday, June 30th: Watch out folks -- our high school Green Team will be on the loose all summer, making our community an even better place to live, work and play!
ArtBeat: Saturday, July 19th, Davis Square: Check out the GWS activities and table!
Groundwork Somerville Yard Sale!: Saturday, September 6, 10am-4pm, Davis Square
Local Roots Food and Music Festival: Saturday, September 27th, 5-10pm, Somerville Community Growing Center (Vinal Ave, Somerville): Featuring RedBones BBQ and the Rex Complex!
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Sign
Up for a Tree Planting Block Party
Dear Somerville Resident:
The Groundwork Somerville Green Team, our high school environmental jobs program,
is hosting Tree Planting Block Parties this summer co-sponsored by the
Llewellyn Foundation, RCN, the City of Somerville and the people of Somerville, Massachusetts.
The Green Team will coordinate three Tree Planting Block Parties this summer
between July 7 and August 15 for neighbors who come together to petition for
these Block Parties, pay for half the planting costs, and promise to commit to
the trees' after-planting needs (watering, weeding, mulching). Group leaders
must live on the street of the Tree Planting Block Party and commit to
organizing their neighbors for active participation on the Block Party Day. A
minimum of five households involved is required for applications for a Tree
Planting Block Party.
Inquire about becoming a Tree Planting Group Leader and collaborate with the
Groundwork Somerville High School Green Team to "Green Your Street!"
The Groundwork Somerville Green Team will provide education, entertainment,
trees and labor if you will recruit your neighbors. Contact us at 617-628-9988
or greenteam@groundwor ksomerville.org by June 10 to get started.
Thanks for stepping up to make your neighborhood a greener place!
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Growing Healthy Gardens Program!
Spring Break Camp 2008 "Spring Into Action"
Our annual Spring Break
Camp took place April 21st- 25th at the Cummings School
and the Somerville
Community Growing
Center. 1st- 3rd graders joined
us for 4 days of planting in the garden, cooking nutritious lunches, visiting
Gaining Ground Farm, and exploring our natural community. The week was a huge success thanks to
beautiful, sunny weather and the help of 10 enthusiastic volunteers!
Our Newest School Garden
The Argenziano
School at Lincoln Park is up and running and with it
our newest school garden! With the help
of our 3rd grade after school Garden Club, led by wonderful Tufts
volunteer, Anna Feldman, and GWS staff, Aviva Asher, we are laying the
foundation for a beautiful garden. The
garden bordering the playground, is equipped with a pollinator garden to
attract butterflies, bees, and bats, a maze of herbs, berries for every season,
and of course, nutritious and delicious vegetables! We are looking for families, gardeners, and
neighbors of the Argenziano
School who would like to
join our Adopt- A- Garden program for a weekthis summer in exchange for fresh produce and a nourishing
experience. Come join us this coming
Wednesday, June 4th, from 12pm-
3pm as we plant, taste, and then celebrate the hard work of the 3rd
grade Garden Club, who designed and planted a garden at the new A.F. Argenziano
School at Lincoln Park.
Urban Wilds II at the Healey School
After the huge success of
the Urban Wilds pilot last fall, we introduced the spring Urban Wilds program
to the Healey School in celebration of Earth Day. Eight classes from 3rd- 6th
grade came to the garden to learn about ways we can make a positive impact in
our community. We tested these methods
as we used our water catchment system to water seedlings, considered how we can
reduce our waste by composting, and considered alternative energy as we pressed
apples into cider! Students also went
down to the Mystic
River to learn about the
river habitat. We discussed the
pollution levels in our river and considered the reason students were unable to
go canoeing as they had planned, following a large rainstorm. These classes will be going canoeing on
Tuesdays throughout the spring with parent volunteer, Jen Capuano. If you are interested in accompanying our
youth onto the river one Tuesday this spring, please contact us!
Garden Workdays
It's that time of year
again and each school has been gearing up for a school-wide family
workday! Contact us if you'd like to
help organize a workday at your child's school.
Last month, we had students from the Brown
School and the Healey School
plant peas, sunflowers, and other
seedlings around the garden that they had started in their classrooms. We finished our new perennial herb garden and
installed a Butterfly
Garden at the front of
the school (led by parent, Jen Capuano.)
Thank you to all the teachers, parents, and students who joined us for a
beautiful day!
This past Wednesday, May
21st, the Edgerly Center hosted a festive workday that united
elementary students from ESCS with middle school and high school aged students
from Next Wave and Full
Circle Schools.
Over the course of one day, students, parents, teachers, and community members
came together to lay down raised beds built during a Tufts University Alumni
volunteer day. We all worked hard,
hauling soil and planting, while artistically inclined painted colorful signs
and murals, and the chefs prepared a delicious cucumber yogurt salad! Visit us at the Bonair Street garden on Friday
afternoons.
English Language Learners help Groundwork in the
Garden
At GWS, we feel it is
important to strengthen the connection between youth and gardening, especially
for those students who have recently made a home in Somerville after moving from another
country. Recently, students from high
school and middle school SEIP classes have engaged in gardening lessons and
activities. These lessons have offered
students an opportunity to improve language skills outside the classroom while
engaging in hands- on activities that open students to considering ways that
gardening in Somerville
can help us maintain our cultural identities.
After all, growing food is a universal act!
After- School
Garden Clubs
This spring, Groundwork
Somerville teachers and interns spread out across the city; offering 65
students from 5 schools the opportunity to design and plant in their school
garden or design and paint a mural with a Somerville
artist as part of a 21st Century after School Garden Club or Mural
Club.
Art and Gardening go Hand in Hand
What do ART and GARDENING
have in common? Community
Beautification. Over the past year, GWS
has welcomed the expertise of Tufts University art student, Nora Chovanec, and
community artist, Rachel Asarnow, who have worked with youth at ESCS, Healey,
and WSNS to design and paint murals that examine the theme of "Farm to School" while
beautifying their school. Try your hand
at painting a mural as we work to finish our newest mural at the West Somerville
Neighborhood School
before the end of the school year!
Butterflies Are Teachers
Groundwork Somerville
is piloting a Community Service Learning project with the City of Somerville, in which 8 middle school youth from the East Somerville
Community School
work with science/ math teacher, Greg Cook, and Groundwork Staff to design and
implement lessons for 2nd grade students from their school. Middle School students employ "just in time
learning" as they work in a Pollinator
Garden discovering the
importance of pollination, native habitats, and the roles of different
pollinators. After ESCS was closed due
to a fire in December, the B.A.T. students have adopted the Pollinator Garden
at the Somerville
Community Growing
Center as their learning
garden. This program was first created
and implemented by Groundwork Bridgeport who is helping us adapt the program
for Somerville. Butterflies Are Teachers is generously funded
by the Tremaine Foundation.
Where can you find Groundwork Somerville this summer???
We will be returning to
the Community Schools' SomerAdventure camp at the Healey School
after last summer's success! We lead
"nature and garden" sessions in the Healey school garden for campers in pre- K
to 6th grade.
Our middle school Garden
Youth Crew, comprised of 20 middle school youth from 5 schools, will be growing
veggies and working in their school garden and at the Somerville Community
Growing Center. We will be harvesting our veggies to sell at
the "Grown in Somerville" table at the Union Square Farmer's Market every 3rd
Saturday of the month. Make sure to test
the students' savvy marketing and enterprise skills when you buy their fresh
produce! We will be pedal- powered this summer and are looking for donations of
bikes, bike locks, and helmets to help our youth bike safely around town! Interested in helping? Join us for one of our weekly community
service trips.
Email aviva.asher@groundworksomerville.org
with questions or to volunteer. Our
programs wouldn't be possible without the wonderful support of parents,
teachers, and volunteers!
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Groundwork Gala a Success!
A sincere thank you to all artists, guests, Board members, staff and sponsors for making our first annual Groundwork Greening the City Gala event a success! Groundwork Somerville hosted art by over 40 artists and sold 15 pieces of art to residents of the Somerville/Cambridge community. We look forward to hosting this wonderful "green" event next year with ten times as many participants!
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A message from Amber Espar:
"To be parting with such sweet sorrow!
These last four and half years working with Groundwork Somerville have
been so rich in growth and connection for me-- an absolute dream job
come true. I remember my first Spring waiting and waiting, wondering if
the seeds we sowed in the new garden beds would ever sprout. With
patience and perseverance and a lot of help from many hands I had the
delight to watch the development, growth and transformation of seven
school gardens in the city and see GWS through many phases. It is a
true gift to have worked with so many dedicated and inspiring people!
Somerville has my heart. Thank you everyone for all you have shared
with me. And thank you to those who will carry on this work of many
hands!
Keep
in touch and keep cultivating the healing, nourishment, connection and
wonder of the gardens in our lives. (yeah, it's sappy, but what can I
say? It is sure hard to leave, even when you know your time has come
to leaf out!)"
Sincerely,
Amber Espar Former Gardens Coordinator
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240 Elm Street, Suite B-7
Somerville, Massachusetts 02144
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