Dispatch from the School Garden Crew: Clinton Ave. School

The School Garden Resource Center Crew partners with neighborhood residents at Clinton Avenue School

by Jesus Reyes, Common Ground Sophomore & School Garden Resource Center Crew Member

Last Saturday, April 27th, the School Garden Resource Center team joined the larger group of volunteers and community members who all got together to build and beautify the garden at the Clinton Avenue School in Fair Haven. The garden is a resource for Clinton Avenue, and for kids and families living in the Quinnipiac Terrace Housing Project, right next door to Clinton Avenue School.

We helped build beds (including two handicapped accessible ones) and filled them with topsoil and only the finest compost. On this day we all accomplished a lot of work! We helped build garden beds from scratch, picked up litter from around the garden, painted the picnic tables, dug out old bushes and replaced them with raspberry bushes, planted flowers and seeds, and mixed concrete to hold umbrella stands down for the picnic tables. We made many new friends, including Mary Ann Moran and Melissa Waldron Lehner (two incredible leaders of the Clinton Ave and Quinnipiac Terrace Garden) and a young volunteer from the neighborhood named Pedro. By doing such work we felt a great and overwhelming feeling of accomplishment because we know that by helping the school and local community build its garden we’ve made a drastic change in scenery in the area and created a safe and fun learning environment for all. Thanks to Rebecca Holcombe and Melissa Spear for organizing all the materials for the build and to all the students of Clinton Ave. and volunteers for the great day!!