Gardening and Games to "Make a Difference"

Since March 2010, CVN volunteers have been making a difference at Arlington Traditional School (ATS). To mark the end of our second season of service at ATS, CVN is helping to host a Fall Festival at the school on Saturday, October 22. And if that wasn’t already a big enough deal, the event is also CVN’s opportunity to celebrate Make a Difference Day, a nationwide commemoration of community service.

In the last two years CVN volunteers have shared more than 200 hours of their time to transform the schoolyard garden at ATS into a fun, safe, and biodiverse place to learn and play. As a result, ATS students have ventured outdoors during the school day to learn about a wide range of subjects—from science and math, to reading and art. By directly observing the relationship between butterflies and native plants or sowing seeds that will grow into nutritious vegetables, students have the opportunity to learn by doing—an approach that pays off when it’s time for test taking.

Come to the Fall Festival to see how much our work means to the students, families, and staff of ATS. Kids, parents, neighbors, and CVN volunteers will be enjoying the fall day with games (sack race, anyone?), crafts, pumpkin pie, and apple cider. And for those of us who just can’t help but get dirty—we’ll be continuing our contribution to the garden by laying paving stones so kids will know where it’s safe to walk. If you haven’t yet registered to volunteer, sign up now! Can't wait to see you there.

Arlington Traditional School Neighborhood Day

Join the Arlington Traditional School schoolyard garden volunteering group this Saturday May 14th from 9-10:30 am for ATS neighborhood day. CVN volunteers will be at the school for our monthly gardening event from 9-12pm. There will also be lots of free activities for the ATS community, friends and neighbors. Activities include sack races, spoon races, a piñata, art in the garden and 4-H children’s activities. You can also get expert garden advice and help CVN weed and plant in the garden. We look forward to seeing you there.

The Arlington Traditional School is located at 855 N Edison Street, Arlington 22205. It is near the intersection of Wilson Blvd and George Mason Drive.

For more information on the CVN gardening event and to sign up to volunteer click here.

If you would like more information on the Arlington Traditional School Neighborhood Day activities please contact Sophie Grasmeder.

Growing Communities at Schoolyard Gardens

Stroll up to the garden at Arlington Traditional School (ATS) and you’ll find lots of things growing (especially now that spring is here!): herbs and daffodils inside the white picket fence of the Colonial garden, cold-hardy crops like broccoli and cabbage in the vegetable patch, river birches surrounded by boulders in the mountain area, perennials getting ready to flower in the pollinator garden, and a young tupelo tree planted in celebration of Earth Day 2010.

If you come on a day when CVN volunteers are working in the garden, you’ll notice another kind of growth as well: relationships sprouting between the parents and students of ATS and the 20- and 30-something volunteers who typically don’t have school-age kids of their own. These monthly work days not only provide an opportunity to get outside and collaborate with a group, they also offer an avenue for the “non-parent” set to connect with one of the richest sources of community in Arlington: our schools.

As much as I’ve enjoyed watching the evolution of the ATS garden over the past year as the volunteers I’ve been leading have contributed to the highly visible transformation of the space, I have embraced even more the chance to be part of a network and a mission much bigger than me. I’ve heard many parents say that having kids in school brought them a sense of community. My thought has been, how can we expand that beyond parents? How can we build on the already central role of schools in the community and create ways for people of all ages and family types to collaborate around the education of our youngest neighbors?

My service at ATS and the personal and collective relationships I have developed there have expanded my sense of citizenship and deepened my connection to the Arlington community. I realized just how much the ATS garden has come to mean to me when someone told me they’d seen a presentation about an amazingly complex schoolyard habitat with river birches and boulders and a tupelo tree. “That’s my school!” I blurted out. And when I started to correct myself and explain the situation, I thought, I’m not a student or parent or teacher, but maybe it really can be my school.

I invite everyone to come lend a hand at one of our garden work days and see if you can find a school to be yours, too! CVN groups volunteer at Arlington Traditional School on the second Sunday of each month (the next day is April 10, 1-3 p.m.) and at Tuckahoe School on the fourth Sunday of each month (the next day is March 27, 2-4 p.m.). Learn more through our Yahoo group or contact me at brynngslate@yahoo.com or 571-246-3574.

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Brynn G. Slate, ATS Garden Group Leader
Recurring Volunteering Committee