Fallon Park to Get Green with Grant!

Keep Virginia Beautiful (KVB) is awarding “30 Grants In 30 Days” in April and May 2012. Fallon Park Elementary School in Roanoke has been awarded a $1,000 grant in the Beautification and Community Greening Category. The KVB grant program focuses greater resources and attention on organizations and individual localities throughout the Commonwealth and how they are addressing the issues of litter prevention, recycling, waste reduction, beautification and education.

KVB provided the opportunity for government, non-profit and/or service organizations in Virginia to apply for one of 30 grants ranging from $500 to $1,000 in three different categories: Beautification and Community Greening, Litter Prevention, and Recycling. These grants are made possible by KVB partners – Capital One, Waste Management and Lowe’s.

The goal of the Garden Courtyard Connections to Learning (GCCL) project by Fallon Park ES is to renovate and refresh a relatively unused space to establish an outdoor learning lab. This lab would be a place in which teachers and students can work and learn together while connecting outdoor gardening experiences and environmental stewardship with the curriculum presented in the classroom. The existing raised beds will be used for five themed gardens, which consist of a Sensory Garden, Beatrix Potter Herb Garden, Peas in a Pod Vegetable Garden, Diversity Garden, and a Butterfly Garden. Fallon Park ES is an inner-city, urban school with a population of 630 students and a free and reduced lunch population of nearly 100%. These students will be provided an invaluable opportunity to learn more about eating healthy, sustainability, the importance of environmental stewardship, along with the sense of accomplishment that comes with a project such as this. Finally, beyond the connections to the curriculum and lessons learned from the garden, students will be able to smell, touch, and taste the vegetables, herbs, and plants grown and planted by their own hands. These experiences go well beyond the schools’ walls to provide their students with life lessons they will treasure in their hearts and minds forever.

Well done, Falcons.  Well done.