Green Team

Autumn 2012 was looking like it would be a pretty typical harvest season. The returning members of our summer Green Team were busily buzzing about the city gathering the last tomatoes, bunches of basil and root veggies out of the ground, and preparing the soil for a winter rye cover crop. Following these housekeeping projects, the Green Team would typically come in for the winter and prepare one or two campaigns during the cold months to advocate for state-wide youth jobs funding, or work on designs for local parks or transit stations. However, as most of the East Coast knows, things are not so typical, thanks to Hurricane Sandy.

By no means can we say we experienced devastation up here in Somerville. Most of us, if we lost power, had it back within days. In fact, there is only one notable long-term effect our Green Team suffered, and that is the loss of our brand new greenhouse at the South Street Farm. Having constructed the greenhouse this summer, we painstakingly anchored it, tied it down, and did everything short of dismantling it completely. However, it wasn't enough, and come Tuesday, we couldn't even find it! When we did locate it, we found it over a 12 foot fence in a twisted heap of metal and plastic.

So what does this mean? This means the Green Team's new winter project is to design and build a new greenhouse so for the South Street Farm! They've already started sourcing recycled windows to build a bigger and better greenhouse. Any funding you give over the next few weeks will be essential to helping us work with a designer, source materials and make this greenhouse a reality!

Links:

• www.groundworksomerville.org

Spring and Summer 2012 is one of the best on Green Team Record!  The only way to convey the magnitude of their accomplishments (which are still underway!) is to start at the beginning:

With 7 youth in the Spring, and 14 in the Summer, the Green Team has:

Built and planted Somerville's first urban farm, the South Street Farm, a 4000 square foot, raised bed farm that is growing produce for Somerville residents and the Union Square Farmers Market

Done a comprehensive park stewardship program in the state park at Blessing of the Bay Boathouse, including planting all their beds, and constantly maintaining them, as well as working on an invasive species removal project eradicating Eurasian Water Chestnuts from the Mystic River. On August 4th they were part of a record-setting team of 70 volunteers who removed 806 twenty pound baskets of the invasive weed.

Partnered with local business Culinary Cruisers to put local, youth-grown mint and basil into their Ocean Ave Pops

Done community service projects in National Parks on the Boston Harbor Islands and in Concord, MA at the Minuteman National Historic Park, as well at the Alewife Reservation, a State Park.

Volunteered all over Somerville at community and arts events

Maintained Schoolyard Gardens with the Garden Youth Crew.

Planned and performed a public open mic event with Teen Empowerment

Partnered with youth groups in Everett, Malden and East Boston to do waterfront assessments within the Mystic River Watershed

Learned how to ride and take care of bikes for carbon neutral transportation all summer.

Attended youth leadership summits with REEP and others.

And they have more to do!

Before the summer is over they will have built a greenhouse, created a rain water harvest system, presented at Boston Green Fest, created a sample green roof, and more!

We are lucky to have these youth, and hope continued support for the program will lead to ongoing schoolyear and summer Green Teams for years to come!

Links:

• A video of the South Street Farm and Groundwork Overview