2012 is the third season that 4-H will have a garden at the Halverson Elementary School site that works with more than 100 elementary-aged kids. The last two years we have worked with volunteers from the AmeriCorps program as well as received funding from the Statewide Health Improvement Program grant to help purchase gardening equipment and put up a small fence for keeping critters out.

Youth from The Children’s Center, YMCA, Salvation Army and Halverson school are part of this educational activity. It includes gardening and healthy lifestyle activities as well as taking care of the garden and harvesting food from it. The garden project continues to be a successful learning opportunity but has its challenges.

Every summer we have had problems with vandalism at the garden site. This destruction has already started this year after I have planted a few hostas to add to the shady areas in the garden. As soon as they were in, someone was already in the garden taking them out and throwing them around. They get replanted, and then they get thrown out again.

This may not seem like a big deal to most, but this destruction is starting already, and we don’t even have anything good in the garden yet or any vegetables producing food or anything. I am concerned because I don’t want to take the time and energy of 100-plus kids to get the garden planted and producing well just to have someone else come in and wreck it for our program. It’s a great program, and I hate to have to see it end because of a few other kids, teens or whoever is already in there ruining it for everyone else. I need help from neighbors in that community to help keep an eye on the garden and to help keep the destruction and vandalism out of there. This is a garden for the youth in our community and its going to take the community to help make it successful. Thanks.

 

Megan Thorson

Freeborn County 4-H

Albert Lea