Canton campers grow produce, friendship, leadership in the garden

Community gardens in Canton Township being used to foster independence, companionship and young leaders

CANTON, Mich. – Summer campers converge on the community gardens in Preservation Park in Canton at least once a week.

"We're planting vegetables, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, stuff like that.  And we're picking weeds and watering so they can grow," said I'Anah Harris, 11, of the B.L.O.C.K.

The children from Camp Able and the B.L.O.C.K. Youth and Teen Center partner up to take care of their garden plots.   Together, they water, weed and watch the progress of the plants.    However, the plants are not the only things these kids are growing in the garden.

Camp Able is a camp for children with developmental and physical disabilities.  The B.L.O.C.K. is for kids 11 to 17 years old.   Their time together is helping build leadership skills, independence and friendship.

"It's just back and forth helping," Harris said.

Chelsea Schmitt, a teen services coordinator for the B.L.O.C.K. said this project is fostering leadership skills.

"A lot of the kids we already have are striving to be leaders in their own communities and in their schools and do different leadership activities. So getting them involved and saying, 'Here are some kids. Why don't you go work with them?' or 'Here is an activity. You want to lead this group of kids through that?' really strengthens those qualities in those kids and gets them motivated and empowered and ready to be successful in their everyday life," Schmitt said.

Schmitt thinks the Camp Able children are getting a lot out of the partnership too.

"I think the Camp Able kids, they get some companionship.  They get to leave their facility. They get to have fun and kind of just work with other kids and see what it's like to be independent and being not with an adult," Schmitt said.  "So they're still with somebody, but it's not the camp counselors they see every day."

Arianna Courtney, 12, is spending her third summer with Camp Able and really loves tending to the garden.

"They help us with the watering and the scavenger hunt and activities," said Courtney.  "It is actually quite fun and I really like it.  I really like the gardening."

Mohamed Ahmad, 12, likes that they are doing the activity together, meeting the other children and spending time together.

"When we mentor them, they feel more comfortable in the garden. Instead of just having conversation, we have like an interactive activity with them," Ahmad said.

"If we help them, maybe, they will help other kids when they get older," Harris said.

Organizers said all the children get excited seeing what they planted grow.

"I love watching them out there, and they just kind of light up when they start seeing something grow on a plant that before was this big when they planted. Iit was just green, and now, it has an orange tomato on it," Schmitt said.

Canton Township's team of volunteer master gardeners oversee 40 community gardening plots.     This summer, they planted two sensory gardens for Camp Able in the community gardens at Preservation Park.

"We planted an 'L' garden and we have plants that have 'L' names: lavender, lemon balm, lemon grass, lemon thyme and lambs' ears," Deirdre Hope, the master gardener coordinator said.

"The sensory garden here shows them that there are more things than just flowers or the vegetables, but they can actually sense things and smell things and taste things," Asha Carvalho, an advanced master gardener said. "It's good to get them back to nature."

The master gardeners won two community service awards this year for their work, including the 2015 Michigan Recreation & Parks Association Community Service Award.

Each year, the volunteers plant and harvest the co-op garden and then donate the fruits and vegetables they produce to First Step, a domestic violence shelter for women in Wayne County.   They grow peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, beans and volunteers pick the product and deliver it to the shelter.

"The women and families who are there can get together and do some community cooking and healing time together," said Hope.

They have also built a butterfly garden at the Summit on the Park that is used by a group of adults with disabilities and the B.L.O.C.K. to teach about the environment and nutrition.

"The particular garden is managed by children with special needs, and it's really nice, because they can see the butterflies. They can see them through the metamorphosis and it was really nice, once they saw the names of the plants, they actually painted the names on the rocks and it was really nice to see that artistic way coming out," said Carvalho.

The master gardeners also attend the weekly farmers market in Canton, answering questions and providing resources to residents for their own gardens.  The farmers market is every Sunday in the summer from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Preservation Park, 500 N. Ridge Rd. in Canton.

Canton also provides garden plots to residents for a rental fee. For more information on renting or the master gardener program, click here.