Learn and Serve Information:

• Summer is a time for fun – but it is also the time when many youth lose what they learned during the school year and gain unhealthy eating habits.
• Our youth are our greatest assets, and ensuring they are on the path to success is our objective
• We are offering a special Service Learning project where teens can have a leadership role in addressing childhood obesity
• Allows teens to give back to community and learn new things at the same time
• Activities include:

1. Work with elementary and middle school students in our year round elementary schools and summer camps
2. Provide fun summer activities that promote fitness and healthy eating
3. Provide families with cooking classes on how to prepare healthy food
4. Develop resource materials for students and families about making healthy choices
5. Create YouTube videos, a traveling art exhibit, presentations, photo journal your experiences through an online blog
6. Learn about the fresh and local food movement by working with growers, distributing food through the Sandhills Farm to Table Coop
7. Set up a bicycle powered generator to make Fruit Smoothies

How does it work?

• Each week has a specific theme and service times.
• Can complete 1 week or all of the summer program to receive credit
• In a week, student needs to complete 2 Learning + 1 Service Activity for 5 ½ hours total and will receive a $15 gas card
• 5 ½ hours in a week is the average time investment
• Further info about national program http://www.servicelearning.org/

The CIS FirstSchool Gardens create a vibrant atmosphere where alliances, opportunities and connections take place. This project allows me to involve Communities In Schools in all aspects of the community from young to old, manufacturer to builder, corporate sponsor to neighborhood organization. Everyone can put their hands around and into this endeavor. There are no barriers to participation, from the non-English speaking parent to the board room executive. It reveals the value of community partnerships coming together to deal with national and regional issues such as childhood obesity and environmental sustainability.

Student health and well being is at the center of the FirstSchool Garden Program. Working directly with children in the garden makes it possible for me to combine hands on learning experiences with helping students develop lifelong healthy nutrition and physical activity behaviors. The lessons learned in the garden can reach beyond the school yard into their homes, families and community. The children see firsthand that they can make a difference. They plant a seed, tend the plant as it grows, harvest the results and take pride in the role they have played in the collective undertaking. As part of that journey, they have participated in a process that tries to cultivate an enthusiasm for learning.

In schools with FirstSchool Gardens, the garden becomes a vehicle for education, an outdoor classroom where learning opportunities are endless. Teachers bring students to the garden as part of an integrated FirstSchool Garden Program. It unites work in the classroom with work in the garden. I make every effort to encourage students’ appreciation of the work and science behind the garden activities as well as linking all curriculum standards into practical application. In addition to healthy living, we explore subject areas such as math, engineering, water conservation, and in general expand students’ knowledge of the world around them. The garden has served as a venue for educational programs that support the connection for schools and community through participation in activities like the Urban Farm Tour and parent workshops.

By assimilating all of these elements into the CIS FirstSchool Garden, I live ‘United’ as the Program Director of a project that strives to promote healthy eating and moving more for students in Moore County.

Published: The Pilot Newspaper
By: Kellen Moore
Date: June 8, 2008

Kathy Byron, board chairwoman of Communities in Schools of Moore County, received the prestigious H. Glenn Williams Power of One Award in Raleigh Saturday. Byron won the honor for her work in creating the FirstSchool Garden, an outdoor classroom at Aberdeen Elementary that integrates the school curriculum and teaches students about healthy eating and exercise.

“I’m deeply humbled and honored by it, but I don’t want anyone to think I did this alone,” Byron said in an interview. “The entire project was something that required a lot of input from a lot of facets of the community.” The award, which Byron accepted at the sixth annual N.C. Education Ball, is named in honor of Williams, a longtime Communities in Schools (CIS) volunteer and advocate for North Carolina children. The award recognizes volunteers who exemplify his same kindness, altruism and enthusiasm for helping children.

CIS, a United Way agency, is a national dropout-prevention organization that seeks to pair students with the community resources they lack to learn successfully — particularly through one-on-one relationships with adults. Byron was nominated by Andi Korte, executive director of CIS of Moore County, along with numerous others who sent letters attesting to Byron’s dedication.

“No one deserves it more,” Korte said. “She is just one incredible lady. Everybody who meets her falls in love with her, she’s so caring.”
The FirstSchool Garden began when Aberdeen Elementary alerted CIS of Moore County that students needed more exercise and a way to learn about good nutrition. After securing a grant from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, and donations from the Moore Regional Hospital Auxiliary and Quality Built Homes, volunteers created the garden on Sept. 6, 2007 — the United Way Day of Caring.
‘Boundless Enthusiasm’

But it was Byron’s efforts that took the project from a collection of plants to a virtual garden of Eden, Korte said. “She became so involved with the kids and the school and the success of it,” Korte said. “She really went out beyond the scope of the project.”  Spending 30 to 40 hours a week at the school, Byron was able to use her expertise as a Master Gardener, a person who receives horticultural training in exchange for volunteering and sharing gardening information with the community.
She also was able to draw on her professional skills. Formerly a registered nurse who focused on child and adolescent psychiatry, Byron said her experience came in handy with the more than 300 students at the school.  Byron helped the students grow a cornucopia of organic lettuce, broccoli and herbs. She brought in residents from the community to tell the students about worm composting and rain barrels, and built bluebird houses and scarecrows.  She sent home packets of herbs at Thanksgiving for families to add to their meals, and taught the students to cook broccoli soup and mini-pizzas from the ingredients they harvested. And she did the grunt work, hauling mulch and cutting grass.
“From the project inception, Mrs. Byron has shown initiative, boundless enthusiasm and endless energy,” Betsy Spencer, a CIS VISTA volunteer, wrote in a letter to the award selection committee. “Mrs. Byron acts as though this were a full-time job with a million-dollar salary!”
‘Sustainability Is Everything’

The grateful words of some students, scrawled on thank-you postcards, also demonstrated how much they enjoyed Byron and the garden.
“Thank you for letting us have the opportunity to let us play with the worms,” one student wrote. “It feels like you have been letting us do all the fun things. Thank you for letting us cook delicious food. Most of all, thank you for caring about us. Also thank you for treating us like we are your own kids.”

Because of the resounding enthusiasm for the garden, the Moore Regional Hospital Auxiliary awarded grants to CIS and FirstHealth Community Health Services for four more gardens at Academy Heights Elementary, Pinehurst Elementary, Vass-Lakeview Elementary and Pinecrest High schools.  That enthusiasm also led Korte to nominate Byron to the selection committee of North Carolina leaders, who selected Byron and four other recipients to receive recognition and a memento at the Education Ball.  Proceeds from the ball, which also included showcased talent and live and silent auctions, benefited CIS of North Carolina.  This year, local students from the CIS Hospitality and Golf Academy participated in the opening ceremony, singing, “When the Saints Go Marching In” with a marching band.

As part of the award, a $1,000 donation also will be made in Byron’s name to a charity of her choice.

So how did Byron choose to donate her winnings?
“It’s going to go straight back to the garden,” she said. “Sustainability is everything.”