Children are a welcome part of the Camden Street Learning Garden. While summer brought heat and afternoon thunderstorms, the neighborhood around Camden Street Learning Garden noticed a new need: an opportunity for children in the neighborhood to gain ownership and pride of the garden. Ladies of the community garden stepped in to address the matter in a personal way: through prayer. They began to meet one morning a week in the Camden Street Learning Garden to pray for the community: for the neighborhood, for the children, and for the food being grown in the garden. Out of these discussions an idea arose— a Vacation Garden School to provide local children a much-needed break from the endless days of summer.
The ladies organized garden-themed crafts and the Camden Street Learning Garden staff taught mini-horticulture lessons. There were even periods of meditation to help the children learn to focus their energies and thoughts in positive directions. While the children may be heading back to school, they can still find their way to the garden in the afternoon, now with more sense of ownership and education. It is, after all, a learning garden.
The prayer circle continues to meet and ask for spiritual intervention and continued blessings for the neighborhood. And the community will go forth in their efforts to grow food and flowers, and children and a sense of well-being. All in the garden on Camden Street.