Your vote could help build a neighborhood garden
Back in February 2016, we spoke with the founders of the Blackland Prairie Conservatory & Atelier school in Lake Highlands, located on McCree near Audelia.
The nonprofit, private mixed-age kindergarten recently opened and is expected to expand year by year.
“We are part of a nature movement, where we believe that art should be a part of learning, that children should learn from nature and the outdoors …” Tiffany Lipsett explained before the school opened. She added that among the school’s wider goals is to get our neighborhood back to loving nature. “We want to establish a community that supports nature- and arts-based learning.”
Today the educators at BPCA are looking for the community’s votes, which could help them earn a grant to establish a community garden, or, as they call it, the Blackland Prairie Teaching Potager. (As when I first read the word “atelier,” I humbly visited a dictionary to search “potager,” which means, essentially, a garden for growing food or kitchen garden, but I am sure you knew that.)
The “one-half acre potager design, [will] provide the resources that will most effectively introduce our students to the concept of earth stewardship and community friendship,” note the applicants.
“… we aim to teach empathy and respect for our fellow citizens. One of the ways we envision accomplishing this is to allow the children to work with our large local refugee population, by growing and providing access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs.”
The Seeds of Change Grant Program this year will award $310,000 to community or school gardens. BPCA is one of two Dallas organizations in the running.
Read more about our neighborhood’s proposed garden and vote here.
Learn more about the Blackland Prairie Conservatory & Atelier here.
