Garden Club / Community Garden

Purposes:

• Create an opportunity for recreation, exercise, therapy, and education
• Produce nutritious food and reduce family food budgets
• Provide opportunities for friendship inter-generational
• Learn about earth friendly gardening techniques
• Increase wildlife habitat areas
• Garden and Nature craft
• Provide a space for children to play and learn about gardening
• Create a peaceful escape from the madness of your world

Ideas for potential scheduling:

• Garden Planning
• Earth friendly weed and pest control
• Create a Wildlife Habitat
• Make nesting boxes

Field trips, Exploration of area resources:

• Garden Factory
• Butterfly Conservatory
• Flower Show
• Lilac Festival
• Elizabeth Rapchick-Weidman
• Sonnenberg Gardens

Resource:

• Tools to share
• Extensive gardening library is available for browsing: planning. landscaping, pruning, wildlife gardening, birds, weeds, and pests,...

Benefits

• Improves the quality of life for people in the garden
• Provides a catalyst for neighborhood and community development
• Stimulates Social Interaction
• Encourages Self-Reliance
• Beautifies Neighborhoods
• Produces Nutritious Food
• Reduces Family Food Budgets
• Conserves Resources

• Creates opportunity for recreation, exercise,therapy, and education
• Reduces Crime
• Preserves Green Space
• Creates income opportunities and economic development
• Reduces city heat from streets and parking lots
• Provides opportunities for intergenerational and cross-cultural connections

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Crayfish River Preschool (Sister School) Project:

Growing Places has created a strong bond with Crayfish River Preschool in the ancient Carib Territory of Dominica, a tiny island country in the West Indies. Not only do we make regular shipments of supplies, the children participate in correspondence through pictures and letters with the children of that country. This relationship between the children provides a marvelous initiation to global awareness. This project has become integral to our activities throughout the year and has attracted the attention and involvement of the community at large.

Taste of Dominica

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Pumpkin Contest

In 2007, Growing Places sponsored the 1st Annual Pumpkin Contest as a means for getting the community involved in assisting our Dominican friends. The impoverished conditions are unimaginable, and shipment of educational supplies is a mere drop in the bucket when one considers the day to day challenges of teaching in an utterly destitute environment. Hunger is rampant. It is in response to this need that Growing Places pioneers efforts to address the more basic problem of malnutrition suffered by the children of Crayfish River Preschool. Working with Christian Children's Fund, a critical benefactor to the island's people, Growing Places seeks to obtain funding through local civic groups and individuals to create an ongoing feeding program in Crayfish River Preschool. We desire commitment from organizations and individuals to the tune of $100 once a year in a given month. In this way we can rest assured that this program will continue year after year. We are blessed with this opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of children there.

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Earth Day

Earth Day Everyday

Earth Hour

Earth Hour is a global event that occurs on the last Saturday of March. The idea is that the people of the world join to take notice of the environmental danger our planet is in by asking households, businesses, and communities to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour in the evening.

Earth Hour was originally promoted by World Wildlife Fund Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007. The strong backing from the City of Sydney helped to make Earth Hour 2008 an international event.

In 2008 24 global cities participated. In 2009 hundreds of millions of people in over 4000 cities and towns and in 88 countries world wide turned off their lights! In fact, entire cities (Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Manila, Mexico City, Moscow, Nashville, Oslo, Rome, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto and Warsaw) went dark!

In 2010, a group of representatives from Growing Places went before the Dansville Village Board to propose making Earth Hour a Community Event. As a result, Mayor William Dixon made the following proclamation:

Whereas, this hour has been designated as "Earth Hour" to remind everyone that, by working together, our community can make a positive impact in the fight against climate change;

Whereas, cities and states across the country are joining with Dansville to raise awareness and demonstrate our nation's commitment to fighting climate change by supporting "Earth Hour," and;

Whereas, the Village of Dansville will turn off the lights during "Earth Hour";

Whereas, we are setting forth a bold vision for Dansville to work toward solutions to the escalating climate crisis and protect our future and that of future generations;

Now, therefore, I, the Mayor, do hereby proclaim, March 27, 2010 from 8:30 - 9:30 p.m. as "Earth Hour" in Dansville, NY and call upon all residents of this great Village to join me in supporting the aims and goals of this effort.

William Dixon, Mayor
March 9, 2010

Please encourage friends, family and members of this community to participate in Earth Hour on the last Saturday of March from 8:30 - 9:30pm.

For more information, go to EarthHour.org.

Check out these video clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjWD8pbK5t8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FclcMfzjwug&feature

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