Get involved in the new Ben Franklin Community Garden!

The PTA is proud to announce that the Franklin Garden will arrive this Spring! Kicking off at the end of April with the construction of four raised beds, our mission with the Franklin Garden is to provide students with the opportunity for hands-on, outdoor learning through sowing, maintaining, and harvesting their own herbs, fruits and vegetables.

The garden will be a host to a new after-school student enrichment opportunity -- The Garden Club--and will also be leveraged as a STEM teaching tool for our teachers to integrate into their existing science curriculum.  Perhaps most exciting is that select harvests will provide healthy, organic snacks that can be served in the Franklin cafeteria. Yum!

We are so thrilled to be able to offer this beautiful shared space for the Franklin community to enjoy, but will need your help to get things up and running. 

If you are interested in being involved in the Franklin Garden, please email Claire (claire.duparc@gmail.com), our VP Health&Wellness with your name and email address.  Once we know how many interested, we will send other communications where you can choose the commitment that best suits you.

Future opportunities to pitch in include our upcoming working bee to construct the raised beds, helping out with the student Garden Club, or signing up to adopt the garden for a week during the summer to ensure it's doing well while the students are away. 

We are also gladly accepting donations of garden tools like hand rakes, trowels, plant ties, stakes. or trellises. If you have any lying around, please let us know!

Thank you!

Your Garden Team
Claire du Parc, PTA & Community Liaison for the Franklin Garden
Emily Eddy, PTA Garden Chair, overseeing the Garden Club
Stacy Duffy, Teacher Liaison for the Franklin Garden

If you are free on 23 April, *you can volunteer to help us set up the space and install the raised beds*.

Registration form available here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4cafab2ba1fac34-benfranklin 
(Make sure you are also registered as a volunteer at the district level (https://apps.raptortech.com/Apply/MTEyMzplbi1VUw)

Future volunteer opportunities will also include "adopting the garden for a week" during summer time (more details coming soon).