GREENFIELD — The town’s Garden Club has awarded a series of grants to local children’s projects.
The club distributed 15 grants worth a total of $2,490 to schools and other organizations, according to a news release issued this month.
The Wheeler Memorial Library in Orange received one grant of about $200 to fund a new butterfly garden and “story walk.” As part of the program, children will plant milkweed plugs and nectar flowers, water them as needed, and observe how butterflies respond to different plants. Children can then attend a story walk event, where pages of picture books are laminated and arranged as a path, beginning and ending at the monarch garden. There will be three story walks held this summer and early fall. The program hopes to spark an interest in conservation among children, Children’s Librarian Jason Sullivan-Flynn said last week.
“They’re learning that conservation can start at home,” Sullivan-Flynn said. “It can be easy and beautiful.”
The Children’s Advocacy Center in Greenfield requested roughly $200 to improve its outdoor area, planting a garden with mosaics and wind chimes, Case Manager Samantha Staelens said Friday. The center provides support to children who are victims of abuse. Staelens hopes a new outdoor garden will provide “an outlet for the stress and tension” and help the children reconnect with nature. Children who have visited the center will be invited to a garden-planting event, as a way to meet one another.
“We find that a lot of the kids, especially younger kids, feel like they are the only kids who have experienced something very scary,” Staelens said. “It connects parents as well. Parents can feel a lot of shame.”
Full list of 2019 Garden Club grants:
■Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School, “Gardening for Butterflies.”
■Camp Lion Knoll, “Camp Lion Knoll Garden Project Year 2.”
■Cushman Library, “A Garden by the Pond.”
■Erving Elementary School, “The Sharing Garden” and “Erving ES Monarch Waystation.”
■Frontier Middle School, “Pocumtuck Community Garden Composting Project.”
■Leverett Elementary School, “Cafeteria Greens” and “Pet Plant Project.”
■Meadows Play School, “Meadows Play School Garden Expansion.”
■Mohawk Trail Regional School, “Mohawk Blooms Phase II,” and “MTRSD After Care Garden Club Assistant.”
■Sunderland Elementary School, “SES Community Garden Rain Garden.”
■The Academy of Early Learning was given two grants for “Things that Grow.”
■The Children’s Advocacy Center (Franklin/Quabbin), “Hope and Healing Garden.”
■The Academy at Charlemont, “Building a Sustainable Food Program.”
■Wheeler Memorial Library, “Story walks at the Library’s Butterfly Garden.”
Contact Grace Bird at gbird@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 280.