2015 Report for Boys And Girls Club

Year

2015

Number of volunteers

48

Total volunteer hours

223

Number of events

7

Number of trees planted

3

Number of perennials planted

89

Enter more details about perennials planted

Hosta, Coral Bell, Coreopsis, Catmint, Hyssop, Japanese Mountain Grass, Zebra Grass, Phlox, Sedum, Daylily, Coneflower, Shasta Daisy

Yards mulch spread

2.00

Summary

The summer of 2015 was a summer of movement and structuration for the group at the Boys and Girls Club of New Haven. The summer began with the group meeting to determine what the Club’s educational and ecological goals were for their planting sessions. After creating a plan of action for the kids, the group then met with the administration at the Lulac Head Start Learning Center at 250 Cedar Street to determine the possibility of planting trees over the next several years on their property. Several conversations and documents later, a new partnership between the Boys and Girls Club, Lulac, and the URI was formed. In the weeks leading up to the tree plantings at Lulac, a small army of children focused on planting perennials in the front of the Boys and Girls Club. Their hands were eager and deft, and after two perennial planting sessions, many of the kids were seasoned veterans. Large portions of the site were covered in landscaping fabric or contained thick roots, but that did not deter the crew from putting their plants in the ground. Later in the season a crew of ten kids from the Boys and Girls Club worked alongside burly Lulac fathers to plant the trees while the Lulac preschoolers watched. This year, the group planted a White Oak (Connecticut’s state tree! Acorns!), a Littleleaf Linden, and a Red Sunset Red Maple Tree (Leaves! Color!). The group also planted a small flower garden in front of a window some of the preschoolers regularly look out of so that images bumblebees and butterflies float through their early childhood memories rather than a litany of cars and asphalt. After the summer’s plantings, the crew committed to long-term stewardship, watering, and protection of their perennials and trees.