|
The Examiner, San Francisco
Thursday, August 5, 2004
page 8
Living the Life
Gardens teach city kids, adults about nature
by Mary F. Albert
In a city where children can grow up without ever dipping a spade in the earth or planting tomato seeds, one non-profit organization is transforming barren cityscape into green space and introducing San Franciscans to the joys of gardening.
Life Frames, Inc., a non-profit organization that sponsors "living library" projects in south Bernal Heights and the Excelsior districts, is giving children and adults hands-on training in developing gardens that reflect the neighborhood's ecological and social history.
Children at the San Miguel Child Development Center have already developed several gardens and - with the help of a mural designer - created a colorful mosaic that depicts the Islais Creek that runs through the Excelsior.
And at the south Bernal Heights site, which started two years ago at the Junipera Serra Annex Children's Center, children are learning how to grow and harvest plants, as well as compost.
"I think it is great," said Sandra Belvin-Hollis, a pre-kindergarten teacher at the Junipera Serra Center. "The children harvested lettuce today and we made a salad. They had a ball."
Garden ecology teacher Yael Ehrenberg explained that for kids who spend much of their day in classrooms, the chance to clear their heads and burn energy is at once educational and therapeutic.
The younger children, such as the 3-year-olds, take in a lot of visual information that explain biological processes about plants, said Ehrenberg. And the older ones are exposed to more sophisticated concepts such as pest control, she said.
Some adults who attend the Excelsior site's enviornmental job training program will be selected to further develop The City's two living libraries, said founder and director Bonnie Ora Sherk, who hope to expand and link both projects.
"We hope to create green transit corridors that mitigate floods throughout the watershed that links Bernal Heights, the Outer Mission and Balboa and Glen parks," said Ora Sherk.
Life Frames has submitted plans for a large-scale eco-zone that Ora Sherk says has been supported by Supervisors Gerardo Sandoval and Tom Ammiano, as well as the Department of Public Words and Public Utilities Commission.
|
