IMPRINTS Cares: Kids Love to Garden!

Dec. 18, 2012 - PRLog -- Meet Gabby Andrade, a senior at Mt. Tabor High School on a mission to teach young children how to garden. Gabby, who is currently working on her Girl Scout Gold Award, visited Imprints Cares, a local business that offers high quality, tailored before and after school programs to many of the Forsyth County elementary and middle schools.  

Gabby’s project would not have started if it weren’t for her project advisor and contact person at South Fork Elementary School, Becca Oliver, who teaches second grade. Becca first expressed the need for work to be done on the gardens at the elementary school, and Gabby gladly took on the challenge.

September was the project kickoff to this service project and, under the guidance of Gabby, many volunteers participated in activities both educational and fun--as they ventured on this learning experience together, discovering the wonders of growing their own garden. Many days and hours were spent preparing the garden beds, sewing the seeds, planting the plants, laying mulch and nurturing the grounds with water and a heavy dose of much needed TLC.  

Only two months later, in mid-November, Gabby was ready to walk the grounds with the Imprints Cares children and teachers at South Fork. She took everyone on a tour of all three gardens: the Butterfly garden; the North Carolina garden; and the Vegetable garden. They surveyed the results of all their hard work—flourishing plants, vegetables and spices such as various butterfly bushes, dogwood tree, rosemary, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, collard greens, radishes to name a few. The children in the Imprints Cares After School Program were filled with anticipation as they learned that the final lesson was harvesting! They picked a prize radish of their own to take home to their family which brought big smiles of joy to their faces.

Gabby's project proved to be an extremely valuable lesson as the kids learned about agriculture, and experienced first hand how to produce food! Gabby and the Imprints Cares team are thankful to South Fork Elementary teachers and kids for their willingness to collaborate on this learning adventure.  Also appreciated was the donation of mulch from Mr. Bobby Pope of Pope Sand & Gravel, donation of plants from Keith and Phillip Gossett of Gossett’s Landscape Nursery as well as the help from the North Carolina Agricultural Extension.