December, 2010
As 2010 comes to a close, Gardens for Humanity wishes you and your family joyous holiday celebrations and a New Year filled with hope and inspiration.
The other day I asked a group of middle school students, "Why Garden?" They came up with twenty fantastic reasons that we summarized as the "Three F's − Food, Fun, and Fitness." It is wonderful to add these Three F's to the Three R's! In addition, they named other benefits that we may call "Food for the Spirit" − Beauty, therapy, trying new things, being outside, and helping the environment.
These children expressed the founding ethic of Gardens for Humanity. Finally, the world is catching up to the vision of our founder Adele Seronde, who, decades ago, worked to enrich communities through art and gardens. Now, as our country is facing economic and ecological crises, we see the wisdom of gardens to create sustainable, healthy, rich, and environmentally sound lifestyles. This is an uplifting source of optimism.
Gardens for Humanity is continuing the legacy of our founder with a new urgency. We are networking with many groups, and inspiring each other with our shared visions and with activities to achieve them. We are dedicated to building communities that can eliminate hunger, develop local agriculture and distribution resources, and develop school and community gardens on a regional scale.
When I see a school that supports the healthy activity of gardening − reconnecting children with the earth and fostering "ecological literacy" − I feel great joy. We are seeing that school gardens are becoming a stimulus for children to become more conscious of their food choices and to experience the nurturing and patience that comes with gardening. These are the building blocks for living responsibly. When parents participate in school gardens, this contributes to family unity and to the satisfaction of working together to support the life-giving process.
With your generous help we can continue to educate and organize nurturing and sustainable communities. Your year-end gift to Gardens for Humanity or renewal of membership will grow in the hearts of many people as we provide them with new experiences in gardening, and foster earth-sensitive and healthy choices.
Thank you for your support,
Best Wishes for the New Year,
Richard Sidy, President
Gardens for Humanity
Gardens for Humanity is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Your donations are tax deductible.
School Garden Update
What makes a school garden sustainable? Below is an email we recently received with some photos of young people engaged in building their garden:
Sedona Red Rock High School
"What a productive day we had!"
~ Elaine Watkins, Teacher and Garden Club Sponsor
"The kids volunteered to come in at 8 a.m., even though they had a late start due to finals today.They worked until 11:30 with Tim Haas, our wonderful garden parent who has spearheaded the fence reclamation project.
Then I forgot I'd scheduled Debra Emmanuel (Director, Verde Food Council) to be a guest speaker today, and when she showed up, it was fortuitous.
The grants from Verde Food Council and Gardens For Humanity were being put into action today.
We've now completed the following tasks: salvaged materials from Brewer Road School, cleared the yuccas and trimmed the Arizona oaks, sunk the fenceposts with a lot of help from the APS rock auger team, cleared the rock and 
weed fabric with help from some other angels (who also did tilling in our planting areas), hung the fence and gate, and started piles of compost in our planting areas.
If any of your folks would like to get together and donate the materials (and maybe some expertise) for a koi pond, that would be on my Christmas list. What a great project this will be!"
The 2011 Spring Planting Festival
Mark your calendars for March 12-20, 2011 for a week-long series of events, workshops, and presentations - a community-wide celebration of garden and environmental awareness.
As we start to receive applications from partner organizations and presenters, our calendar is shaping up to be filled with a diverse offering of events for all ages and interests.
Our Festival will showcase what many in our community are doing to promote local food security, ecological education, health, and sustainable lifestyles, through a variety of workshops, forums and presentations.
If you would like to participate as a presenter and have not yet applied you may download an application and a letter for presenters by clicking on the links. We will continue to accept applications until the end of December.
To support our programs you may donate with PayPal or by mail.
or mail a check to:
Gardens for Humanity
P.O. Box 1202
Sedona, AZ 86339.
Gardens for Humanity is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Your donations are tax deductible.
Links to Articles in this Letter
School Garden Update
Spring Planting Festival
Support School Gardens
Funds are needed as "seed" money for materials to get them started. Schools have a great potential to develop healthy choices in their students and benefit the entire community.
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