Adventure Summer Camp Visits the Boat School Garden

AUGUST 15, 2024

We had a great visit from the Adventure Summer Camp on Aug 15. 26 kids between 7 and 12 came to learn about our gardens and what we do and have fun while doing it. Kelly and Belinda (garden volunteers) organized a program which began with a talk about what the Food Bank Growers do (Dianna), followed by a walking tour of the garden (Noreen) and then Kelly and Belinda led a series of interactive events. 

First the kids helped to water and pull weeds. They did a great job and likely delayed our next weeding effort by a couple of weeks.  Next up was the ‘non-native trail search’ where the kids looked for man-made objects (e.g. a yellow paper clip, a piece of a plastic straw) placed in the space. The intention of this exercise is to awaken the senses and minds.  Once awakened we moved on to photographing something beautiful in the garden. Rather than use modern day cameras, the kids used their fingers to frame an object in the garden (e.g. a flower or a berry) and then asked their partner to witness what they were seeing. The grand finale was a scavenger hunt which even included finding a slug (boo) and a mushroom (yea). 

The event was topped off with a snack of sliced cucumbers and lavender mint tea. An all-around fun day in this small garden. The campers left Happy.

Submitted by Noreen Andrews, Boat School co-manager