CONTACT: Pam
Lucas, Coordinator
Phone: (541) 776-8520
E-Mail: pamela_lucas@soesd.k12.or.us
Mary Foster, Teacher
Phone: (541) 535-6840
E-Mail: mary_foster@soesd.k12.or.us
When the budget gets you down,
seek renewal where things grow and bloom - like beautiful gardens
created by disadvantaged children.
OSBA's May salute goes to the
Southern Oregon ESD for its Garden Project, a collaboration among
the ESD's Harambe Service Learning, Special Education Transition
Classroom and Migrant Education Family Literacy programs.
Students in the Harambe (Swahili
for "we all pull together") program are managing a
community garden they planted in a low-income neighborhood - and
will soon create more life where they'll fold in everything from
history lessons to science and math.
Students surveyed neighbors to
gauge interest, prepared the ground, designed plantings and
created budgets. They also built fences and benches.
Last year these students helped
special education students build an "enabling garden"
for their disabled peers. All beds were raised to 24 inches for
wheelchair accessibility. They included a sensory garden for the
blind. Migrant students got involved by interviewing elders about
medicinal plants from their Hispanic countries. With the help of a
local artist, migrant families made books with art and
descriptions of the plants to take home.
"This work also makes
history very real for the students," says Pam Lucas, project
coordinator, noting they discovered the community garden was on
the site of the old Jackson County Poorfarm. "A former
resident came from San Francisco to meet the students and tell
stories of life during the depression," she said. "No
textbook could have done better."
The next project will be a
community garden in West Medford. The students call themselves the
"gardening angels" when they contact neighbors to start
the planning process.
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