Statefarm funded YMCA Eco-Ambassadors FINALE!

This year’s Evergreen collaboration was funded by Statefarm. It was a year of experiential learning at the Evergreen Brickworks. Staff and Students thoroughly enjoyed our time learning outside the classroom. Thank you Evergreen and Statefarm for supporting our environmental learning!

As a whole school we brought together our newly acquired skills from our year-long Evergreen workshops. This year we focused on three themes: Active Transport, Food Systems & Urban Ecology. These themes flowed easily into our final whole school project – Greening the FDC Childcare Outdoor Playspace.

This year we didn’t just “green” the space. We spent hours with the Evergreen garden consultants to learn about the plants that are appropriate for each area and that are able to be placed in an area with toddlers. Students decided they wanted their gardens to meet the following criteria:

  • Green (to cover up all the concrete)
  • Look nice (like an oasis)
  • Easy to maintain (will be ignored on weekends)
  • Hardy (can withstand toddler interest / trampling / tricycles)
  • Not poisonous (did you know corn stalks are poisonous?)

Here is where we started. Pretty dismal:

Lower playground – soon to be home to a flower garden and an edible garden
Upper Playground soon the be home to 30 planters and a bare foot path

Our Greening happened over a number of days. We planted seeds and prepared the gardens with help from our Ouje Bougoumou friends:

Exchange group working together. ½ skid of soil and compost to nourish the depleted soil

We helped the preschoolers plant seeds for their edible garden and watched them grow over a month. Beans, Peas, Watermelon, oh my!

We designed all four garden areas (flower area, edible area, planters, bare-foot path and slide area)

Our designs. Each group took leadership over a garden area

The EDIBLE GARDEN Group
SLIDE and BARE FOOT PATH Group
PLANTERS Group
FLOWER GARDEN Group

We planted & we watched our garden grow……

The pre-schooler’s edible garden grown from seeds.
Planters Before
Planters After
Edible Garden Before
Edible Garden After
Flower Garden Before
Flower Garden After
A look at the lower playground, greened!

A VERY big thanks to everyone:

•    Statefarm for your financial support
•    Evergreen for your expertise, planning and collaboration
•    Academy students for your hard work and vision!
•    Academy staff for your support of this project
•    Canada youth exchange for allowing us to host our friends from Ouje Bougoumou
•    Ouje Bougoumou staff and youth for your energy and enthusiasm
•    The FDC preschoolers and teachers for their wild enthusiasm and watering skills
•    Our volunteers and Interns; Rein, Todd, Carla, Micah, Gabe, Nanci, Bob, Paul
•    And everyone who has supported our project.

THANK YOU!

 

Jun 5th, 2012 – Eco-Ambassadors Final Project
YMCA Academy Community, Environmental Stewardship, Experiential Learning