(San Vicente Elementary School) â" âThis is the first thing I ever grew myself!â said San Vicente School Young Farmer Sheresse Lizama. âAnd itâs the best tasting cucumber ever!â
The Young Farmers Club or YFC was enjoying the fruits of its membersâ labor with a cucumber party, dipping their âcukesâ in ranch dressing and bragging about who grew the biggest ones.
The YFC began seven years ago with the goal of teaching students how to grow their own food, and then to take that knowledge home and help start a family garden. Fresh produce on island can be so expensive, full of pesticides and not really that fresh. The founders of the club, Rick Gramlich and Val Welch, hoped that, with Saipanâs climate, soil, and rainwater, more people would learn how fun and easy it is to grow your own food. Over the years these San Vicente students have grown flowers, fruits, vegetables, tilapia, shrimp and even strawberries. They were growing hydroponic tomatoes long before it became the ânewest thingâ. They had plant sales and sold their papayas to buy more supplies and even set up the âLeroy A. Camacho Scholarship,â donating thousands of dollars to be awarded to the first YFC members when they graduate from high school.
âItâs always great to see their faces when they pick their first crop,â said Gramlich, who is still the YFC coordinator. âThey get this big smile and canât wait to take their veggies home and show their family. I really enjoy seeing some of the first Young Farmers around town years later. They tell me they are still planting gardens at their housesâ
Ms. Paulette Sablan, SVS principal, added, âThe SVS YFC program is a great opportunity for our students to connect with the true source of their food. By teaching them gardening skills, and the importance of living a healthy life equips them with the necessary skills to be lifelong learners. The various experiences the program offers provides our young farmers an outdoor learning experience that is connected to our curriculum. The greatest reward comes from the pride they have when they harvest their crops and learn that eating vegetables is actually really delicious. Mr. G has been doing an awesome job in getting other grade levels involved and we are very grateful for his passion for the program. Our Young Farmers are currently assisting the other grade levels that volunteered to start their own class gardens. We look forward to seeing the results at the end of the school yearâ Â
The SVS YFC has won many accolades over the years but they were especially honored last year to win the Micronesia Islands Nature Alliance â2014 Environmental Hero Award.â  The BECQ Laolao Bay Pride Campaign nominated San Vicente Elementary Schoolâs Young Farmers Club for their partnership and continued efforts in implementing erosion control and preventing storm water runoff from polluting Laolao Bay. The installation of the rain garden at their school has helped keep our coral reefs and fish healthy by reducing their storm water runoff. The SVES Young Farmers Club has taken the lead in maintaining the rain garden and has become our young environmental stewards in helping to communicate the campaign messages by participating in our Micronesia Challenge commercial. Through these efforts, SVES has become a model school for the rest of the community to understand and build more rain gardens within the communities.
âIt was great to receive this award,â said Gramlich. âIt was also nice of BECQâs Laolao Bay Pride Campaign to donate supplies for this year. It really helped to buy things we normally cannot afford. We would also like to thank Jihan Buniag for coordinating the purchasing of the supplies. The kids felt like it was Christmas when we got all the new shovels, gloves, and fertilizer. They even bought us seeds online that we couldnât get on island. Joeten was also kind enough to donate supplies in years past. We would also like to thank DLNR and CREES. This year they donated garden boxes and supplies so the YFC could help other classes start gardens. So far 5 classes have started gardens, so over a hundred students are experiencing the wonder of growing your own food and flowers. I am so proud of our young farmers. Not too many kids these days are willing to go out in the hot sun after school to dig in the dirt and pull the ever-present weeds. But the real payoff is watching their hard work pay off, seeing the beautiful gardens fill out with veggies and flowers, and of course the smiles and cucumber parties.â
Title :
San Vicente School Young Farmers Club keeps on growing
Description : 28 Apr 2015 (San Vicente Elementary School) â" âThis is the first thing I ever grew myself!â sa...
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5