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Youth Programs

Outside Sullivan Apartments, a garden flourishes

Outside Sullivan Apartments, a garden flourishes

Step out the side door of the Deborah Barton Neighborhood Network Center at Sullivan Apartments and see a profusion of plants.

The lush garden, planted by staff and children in the after-school and summer program located there, includes flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables. For a tiny patch of earth, it is full to the edges of the best that gardening has to offer.

“It’s our garden,” explained Dasany Lester, who is 10 and an active participant in the youth program. “We grow a lot of things here.”

Custodian Paul Pereira gets help from children at Sullivan Apartments building forms for a garden.

Custodian Paul Pereira gets help from children at Sullivan Apartments building forms for a garden.

A lot of things includes basil, cabbage, cilantro, cucumbers, green peppers, kale, lettuce, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, tomatoes, zinnias, and zucchini.

The garden started out small, and has been extended year by year to its current, verdant state.

The project has been guided with love by Karen Guillette, who helps to infuse more literacy in Springfield Housing Authority’s five after-school and summer youth programs. She said the Sullivan garden began a few years ago.

“The children built raised beds in an area to the left of building with the help of custodian Paul Pereira,” she said. In fact, Pereira responded to her request enthusiastically, even encouraging a few of the boys in the program to help him out with the wooden forms.

“They were very engaged in the process. In the raised beds they planted lettuce, zucchini, potatoes, cabbage, kale, cukes and a few strawberry plants,” she said.

When Guillette first started working with the children on the garden, there were only a few non-descript bushes in the area outside the building in the back. Now there are some perennial flowering plants, including a lilac bush, a hydrangea, and Irises in addition to zinnias, basil, tomatoes, cilantro, peppers and strawberries.

Karen Guillette andy her young gardeners inspect the garden outside the community center at Sullivan Apartments.

Karen Guillette andy her young gardeners inspect the garden outside the community center at Sullivan Apartments.

It’s a sight to see, and has the loving care of Guillette, Pereira and all of the children involved.

Guillette said the garden has a bigger purpose than providing beauty and food.

“I feel that it is very important for children to learn how to grow food for a variety of reasons,” said Guillette, who has used art, crafts, outdoor walks,  poetry and many other mediums to enhance literacy among SHA children.

“I want them to know where food comes from other than the grocery store. I want them to know about different types of vegetables and have the experience of eating fresh vegetables that do not have any pesticides on them. I want them to experience the excitement of watching things grow, knowing that they have had a hand in the process,” she added.

Several of the children have taken a special interest in the upkeep of the garden, she noted.

“Although not every child is interested in gardening, there is a large and faithful bunch of children who always ask me ‘Are we going to work in the garden today?’ or ‘Can we water the plants.’ They absolutely love to get their hands in the dirt,” she said.

“Seeing the worms and bugs that are often there, for them, is different and unique. Weeding is a bit less fun for them so we mulch the garden to keep the moisture in and the weeds down,” she said.

Guillette has seen in her work that many urban children are disconnected from nature and don’t realize where food comes from. Many do not get much fresh food at home.

“It seems very important and necessary to reconnect them to a basic understanding and experience of planting, growing and eating fresh vegetables,” she explained.

Young gardener Kiara Lee helps with planting at Sullivan Apartments.

Young gardener Kiara Lee helps with planting at Sullivan Apartments.

“I also want them to have beautiful things in their world such as flowers. I want them to know the names of as many vegetables and flowers as they do of video games, types of cell phones, Hollywood movies, and things like that. I want to turn their attention away from the many ‘screens’ of their lives and help them to observe and learn about the nature that is all around them. They need an opportunity to create something real rather than virtual. They need to get their hands in the dirt and grow things,” she said.

3530 days ago / Youth Programs
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