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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

AmeriCorps in D&C

The following article appeared in Friday's Democrat and Chronicle and mentions the good work of members of Rochester AmeriCorps at MCC and their service project with Rochester City Schools as part of Flower City Kids.

Pupils at the beach plant and play away

 3,500 eager youths take part in Flower City Kids' gardening fun

Gary McLendon
Staff writer

(June 3, 2006) — Schoolchildren dream about a day like Friday.

More than 3,500 Rochester elementary school pupils, grade 3 and under, traveled to Ontario Beach Park to plant flowers, eat hot dogs and play at the beach.

It was the culmination of the Flower City Kids gardening program, which encourages pupils to plant seeds and create gardens, both in school and at their homes.

Flower City Kids began in 1987 with 100 pupils at School 35. It has grown to include 15,000 pupils a year, including public and private schools as well as day care and Head Start centers.

Alayzha Clarke, 6, a first-grader at School 45 who said she enjoyed planting flowers with classmates Isis Steward, 7, and Jaquayla Thompson, 6, was hopeful that she and her friends would have to wait only "a little bit longer until they grow."

Earlier, the three girls had walked into the park behind a brightly colored sign carried by parent volunteer Latoya Reid, who, like other parents, played a key role by chaperoning the kids.

Elsewhere in the park, AmeriCorps volunteer James Benbow knelt to help School 39 first-graders Gianna Ward and Aliciana Lotempo, both 6, do their planting along a hillside west of the park's main beach house.

As the children grow, "they'll remember these days and be able to come out here for cookouts or festivals and tell their parents they enhanced the beach," said Benbow. "The hope is they take this (pride) into their neighborhoods."

"It's fun," Gianna said. "We get to dig the hole, and then we get to push (the flower) down in the dirt."

School 39 teacher Florence Jones brought 15 pupils to the park. "We look forward to this every year," she said. "It's a wonderful day for the children."

In addition to parents, school administrators and the AmeriCorps citizen volunteer program, the day was made possible through the efforts of the Rochester Landscape Technicians, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County, the Frontier Pioneers, Wegmans and the city Parks Department.

"This program not only helps the teachers develop a curriculum, the kids get to do hands-on learning," said Lynn DiBiase of Frontier. "And the community gets to enjoy the flowers as well. Everybody wins from this."

Dianne E McConkey
College and Community Relations
06/07/2006