WorldLegacy Project Community spirit taking root

Powe School, neighbors will share new garden

AL CARSON acarson@heraldsun.com
December 8, 2003

They’re growing more than just children at E.K. Powe Elementary School.Sprouting along with the youngsters are pecans, broccoli, cabbage, cherries, figs, apples, blackberries, raspberries and grapes, to name some of the future foodstuffs volunteers have planted in the school’s new “edible garden.”

Volunteers from a leadership training group teamed with a neighborhood group in recent weeks to plant a variety of fruits and vegetables in front of the school, located at 913 Ninth St., for use by the community and the school.

Members of WorldLegacy N.C. 61 leadership team, an outgrowth of a Morrisville organization called the WorldLegacy, called the school out of the blue in late November, saying that a planned community service project had fallen through, and that they wanted to plant a garden at the school, Principal Brandon Patterson said.

“Even more wonderful than that, they were appreciative,” he said. “They kept thanking me for the opportunity. It was really just amazing.”

Community members, educators and students gathered to dedicate the garden in a ceremony last week.

A few days after meeting with the group, which worked in conjunction with the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, volunteers were getting their hands dirty, finishing the work over a three-day weekend.

The garden not only makes the school more attractive to look at, Patterson said, but also will serve an educational purpose.

“Being a school with a science focus, it’s wonderful to have another set of items for kids to learn from to look at the growth cycles, to look at the comparison between this garden without pesticides to one with pesticides,” he said.

The neighborhood association, which plans to maintain the plot using strictly organic methods, says it will encourage local residents to use the garden as well.

People from the neighborhood would be welcome to take home clippings or seeds from the garden to plant at home, Patterson said.

Reprinted from The Herald-Sun, (Durham, NC)