Cypress students filling the new garden box

Neighborhood children attending Children's Learning Gardens, fill the new garden box with sand and compost. Last week Pediatric Resident Dr Gerald Williams taught them about tomatoes, so part of this week was spent getting a garden box ready to plant tomatoes. The children are all students at Cypress Elementary School. One, (whose mother also helped) even in Kindergarden.

The original garden box, made of scrap lumber, had begun to disintegrate after four years of use, we built a new one, this time using water-resistant "hardie board" on the areas exposed to moisture.

Campfire circle completed!

The campfire circle is now complete. Your class, group, church, team, or family can provide a small group of neighborhood children with a mashmellow roast and song-fest on a Friday or Saturday night or a simple pancake breakfast about 8:15 on a Sunday morning

Campfire circle

Senior Medical Student Thor Haugen, finishing his Senior Mission Elective, works with his friend, Krimzen, a nurse at LLUMC, to install benches around the campfire circle at the Norton Gardens after-school site. The campfire is used for evening programs and marshmellow roasts with neighborhood children and youth.