Funding came via a grant from the Partnership of Women, which will again award more local nonprofits Thursday
One eight-year-old member of the local Boys and Girls Club said that he likes to go to the Elm Street organization’s greenhouse when he’s angry and feeling stressed out.
This is exactly the type of reactions that Boys and Girls Club officials had hoped for when they decided to pursue the construction of a greenhouse last year, said Ryan Bibb, the chief operating officer.
For one, it’s feedback that shows that the boy can identify his emotions and do something positive about them, and two, the supplemental activity is in line the club’s mission to create opportunities and avenues for positive activities.
“This is just an added value to what we’re able to do at the Boys & Girls Club,” Bibb said.
The opportunity came via a $15,000 grant from the Henderson Partnership of Women that was awarded last summer.
POW will again award $15,000 to this year’s grant award winner—as well as $5,000 to two runners-up—at its annual dinner at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Farmer and Frenchman.
Brooke Vorbeck, the grants co-chair for POW, said this year’s three finalists are the Fr. Bradley Shelter for Women and Children, Elevate and The Port.
Officials with the Fr. Bradley Shelter plan to renovate its kitchen, adding commercial grade refrigerators and ovens to serve its population, Vorbeck said. The Port wants to expand opportunities—including attending more events—for its members, aged 16-25, said Vorbeck. And Elevate wants to implement a mobile learning kitchen which will be used to educate its students in preparing meals and kitchen safety, Vorbeck said.
For a local nonprofit to be considered for the POW grants, it first must fill out a general application in the spring, Vorbeck said. After that, the POW grant committee narrows the field to six, and those six must complete a more detailed grant application, Vorbeck said.
That’s followed by a site visit by POW representatives, and then the field is further narrowed to three, Vorbeck said. At Thursday’s dinner, the three finalists will give an up-to 7-minute presentation, which will be followed by POW members voting for the winner, she said.
Bibb’s reaction to the program the Boys & Girls Club was able to implement from the grant funding is sterling.
“It’s everything we thought it would be,” he said.
In addition to the mentioned emotional benefits of digging in the dirt, there are also entrepreneurial, financial and educational benefits.
Bibb said the 40 or so children—about half of the center’s 80-90 average daily attendance—who last year worked in the greenhouse got the real-world lesson of where food really comes from, something often lost in the mega supermarkets. He also said students learned the food they grow is healthier and less expensive than what is found in the grocery store.
Students also learned some business skills, selling some of the seedlings raised in the greenhouse to community partners.
Further education included learning how to identify seeds of tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe, squash and cucumber, Bibb said.
The COO hopes that this year the students will transplant seedlings from the greenhouse to a garden, perhaps on the local Boys & Girls Club Elm Street campus.
Finally, the project, according to Bibb, spurred more involvement from Boys & Girls Blub board members who are a part of the local agriculture community.
“It’s so unique,” Bibb said. “(There are) not many youth-serving programs across the country that do this.”
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More information can be found at https://www.facebook.com/PartnershipOfWomen and POW! Partnership of Women | Henderson, Kentucky, Philanthropy, Grants, Community Involvement and Impact.
