Lincoln Parish 4-H'ers participated in the My Green Space service-learning project. The goal of this project was to encourage the Grambling community to take part in a revitalization of gardening and using products for community festivals.

A Grambling church wanted to find help with a plot of land that was just sitting idle to find something that would benefit the community. After discussions with two Grambling Lab Schools, they decided to prepare the area for a community garden. Also, Grambling State University had an abandoned greenhouse facility that was an eyesore. The lab schools were going to take on a clean-up project, but once some of the community leaders saw the potential, they all came together to make the facility an enhancement to the community.

The 4-H Club, along with a volunteer, recognized the needs of the community for a gardening site that the entire community could become involved in and for something to be done with the greenhouses. A meeting was set up with the university about allowing use of the greenhouse facility. After discussions, it was decided to make repairs to the greenhouse, grow bedding plants and transplant them to a community growing area.

Youth participated in the preparation of the garden area. They transplanted watermelons throughout, and they participated in the opening ceremony. Youth also participated in the prep work to get the greenhouses back into growing shape. They are still in the initial steps of this stage. During the transplanting stage, all members of the community were invited to take part in the planting.

A float prepared for the Watermelon Festival received second place, and melon entries were exhibited there. Also, during Grambling’s Juneteenth Day, the community participated in harvesting.
 
Discussions were lead to help kids identify the benefits not only to themselves but also to the community. 4-H'ers were asked to write PSAs to communicate to the public the processes used in participating in this project. Many photographs have been taken, and youth will be asked to discuss what is happening in each picture. Youth also participated in a radio interview that gave them the opportunity to explain in detail their project from its beginnings. This project lasted 40 hours and reached 300 people as of 7/30/2009.

[Image: Lincoln] [Image: Lincoln] [Image: Lincoln] [Image: Lincoln] [Image: Lincoln]

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