The Neighborhood Fruit Tree Planting in conjunction with the La Casa Youth Engagement Grant is really starting to blossom! We still need one more youth leader.
Interested teens: please contact Charles Steele (youth leader) at Goshen High School or Laura Bruno (adult leader) at email hidden; JavaScript is required or 971-8300. Adults with expertise or interest in planting, pruning, or even just eating fruit, please contact Laura to find out how you can get involved. We will be planting in Spring 2014, but planning and selecting fruit trees and bushes throughout the Fall and Winter months. This is a neighborhood project for the Parkside and Historic Southside Neighborhood associations. Let us know what kind of trees you’d love to see in Water Tower Park or what kinds of fruits you’d love to harvest for free!
August 17, 2013
Laura Bruno, who lives in the Historic Southside Neighborhood of Goshen, is seeking youth and adults in the Historic Southside and Parkside neighborhoods who have interest in helping create an urban food forest in Goshen.
See her note below:
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I’ve been meeting with Julia King of LaCasa Inc. and Becky Hershberger (the point person for the 9th Street corridor renovation). LaCasa currently has two youth engagement grants available for $1,000 each. I’d like to explore the possibility of using at least one of the grants to plant fruit and nut trees around the perimeter of Water Tower Park, just south of Plymouth on 9th St.
I’m putting out a call for anyone who knows any youths at all interested in gardening, community service, food forests, college application/resume building, or just improving the neighborhood and meeting like-minded people — please let them know about this opportunity and find a way to connect with them.
The grant(s) require that at least two youths (aged 15-20) be significantly involved in leadership roles, and the grant must focus on neighborhood connection, improvement and involvement. It would make sense to focus this grant on the Historic Southside and Parkside neighborhoods if the project is located at Water Tower Park.
Additional project possibilities
Potentially using the other grant this Fall — could also include putting in some raised bed gardens in Water Tower Park, too. (I have information on some made from recycled milk jugs, and they have cold frames and a bulk discount.)
The youth need to show how all the $1,000 would be spent, so if there’s extra money, it could either need to go to raised beds or some other project expansion or photography exhibit, or even a big party.
Anyway, if there are enough neighbors interested in helping to make an Urban Food Forest in Goshen a reality, we could do it this Fall. We just need some youth to step into positions of leadership and influence the decision making process. Please let me know if you have any ideas or contacts.
We will need minds to plan what kinds of trees and their relative location, as well as the possibility of permaculture guilds around the trees. Do you know anyone in these two neighborhoods with this kind of knowledge and interest?
“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is today.”
-Laura
email hidden; JavaScript is required
LaCasa Youth Engagement Grant – 2013
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