Original 2023 Post … followed by images from 2024

Gardening For Life Project Educational Outreach

What would it take to get students excited about biodiversity? Answer -Engaging them with super-fun/hands-on/creative projects!

When the Gardening For Life Project was just a seed of an idea, our Leadership Team knew we wanted some facet of this project to engage students. We had already been discussing the thought of doing a seed giveaway for our March 4th event. We decided, in an ideal world, this would be the project to take to the schools.

We got to work and boy, did community partners show up to help!

Step One: Track down a regionally appropriate, pollinator-friendly seed mix, available in bulk. Our friends at Ernst Conservation Seed came to the rescue. They helped us identify the best seed mix, determine how much we would need in order to have 750 seed packages to give away, and they offered us a discount pricing.

Step Two: Round up eco-friendly, recycled paper seed packages, a GFLP stamp to label them and then write and print a “planting instructions sheet” that would be inserted into each pack.

Step Three: Figure out a way to engage the students in conversations about healthy habitats and give them an opportunity to hand-decorate the seed packs.

That third step we thought might be the most challenging. The great news is that GFLP Partner (and Exhibitor) Champions for Wildlife said, “We can help!”

Champions for Wildlife is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire everyone to become champions for threatened wildlife.

*Above - A group of girl scouts are shown a red wolf skull by Candace, the red wolf keeper at the WNC Nature Center.*

“Educational programs for children is one of our most important initiatives. We are working with several local school systems and scout troops to develop curricula for endangered animals and how they impact our environment in a positive way.” - Loti Woods, co-founder Champions for Wildlife.

It is via just such a program, their afterschool outreach, that this great collaboration happened: Seeds in Schools.

Loti Woods, Dale Weiler and their team of staff and volunteers are presenting lesson plans about habitat, biodiversity and wildlife’s underdog species in elementary and middle school afterschool programs in Polk County. As a fun activity to lock in the lessons, the children are invited to “be champions for wildlife!” They are invited to hand decorate seed packages that will ultimately be stuffed and given away March 4th.

We are so excited about the outcome! These students are excited, inspired and they are so creative! All participating students get to take home a package of seeds to start their own pollinator garden and, thanks to their efforts, attendees of the Gardening For Life Celebration will have seeds to take home, as well.

Just image 750 + new pocket-gardens for pollinators spread out all across our region and piles of school kids who are excited about making a difference!

Our partners Champions for Wildlife are champions of wildlife and the tremendous potential of our next generation. Many thanks go out to their team for helping us to bring Seeds in Schools to life.

4.1.24 Post Update:

Here is a Photo Gallery of highlights from the 2024 Seeds in Schools. The topic was Moths!