Home » More About BBG » Pressroom

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 23, 2009

CONTACT

Leeann Lavin: 718-623-7289, leeannlavin@bbg.org
Kate Blumm: 718-623-7241, kateblumm@bbg.org

GreenBridge, the Community Environmental Horticulture Program of Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Presents the 28th Annual Making Brooklyn Bloom

Growing Up Green: Guiding Youth from Gardening to Green-Collar Jobs

Saturday, March 7, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
With Featured Speakers, Panel Discussions, Workshops, and Hands-On Exhibits

(Left) Making Brooklyn Bloom features hands-on workshops on composting and other topics taught by expert members of the GreenBridge staff; (Right) the event offers community members an opportunity to interact with 30 exhibitors offering guidance on urban greening. (Photos courtesy Brooklyn Botanic Garden)

Brooklyn, New York—February 23, 2009—Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) presents Making Brooklyn Bloom, the Garden's annual community horticulture event and spring gardening kick-off day, Saturday, March 7, 2008. For 28 years, BBG has produced Making Brooklyn Bloom—an event that has grown more popular as it has become increasingly resonant with the borough's citizens. This year's theme is "Growing Up Green: Guiding Youth From Gardening to Green-Collar Jobs." Making Brooklyn Bloom '09 is devoted to engaging youth in gardening as a way to mobilize the "greening" of urban communities and pave the way to "green-collar" careers, especially through growing fresh food. The free event offers 30 exhibitors, 16 workshops, and experienced and passionate speakers who are nationally recognized trailblazers in youth engagement and urban agriculture.

For the first time, almost half of Making Brooklyn Bloom's signature workshops—many of which are hands-on—will be led by young community members who are passionately involved in gardening activities in the city. The event will also explore the numerous benefits for youth involved in greening projects, including decreased risk of obesity, improved concentration, enhanced self-esteem, healthy recreation and socialization opportunities, leadership development, emotional well-being, and improved nutritional habits.

Making Brooklyn Bloom's keynote speaker is Maurice Small, the City Fresh Program Coordinator at the New Agrarian Center in Cleveland. Small's keynote talk, "Youth | Soil | Food: Imagine…" will address the strategies and challenges of involving youth in developing a food system that makes a greener lifestyle—particularly a healthy diet—available to citizens at every socioeconomic level. Small coordinates the City Fresh program, an 800 plus member urban community supported agriculture enterprise located in Northern Ohio. The City Fresh program aims to build a more just and sustainable local food system by improving access to fresh locally grown food for urban residents and providing marketing opportunities for local farmers through the development of neighborhood food centers, nutrition education, urban market garden training, and more. Prior to City Fresh, Small worked at Cleveland Botanical Garden with paid youth interns, and supervised juveniles reentering the community. He also coordinated youth mentoring program that provided jobs for Cleveland youth who assist with a variety of urban garden projects across Cleveland, gaining valuable skills in all aspects of running a sustainable food system.

This year's roster of Making Brooklyn Bloom exhibitors features more interactive exhibits than ever before, supported by tip sheets that attendees can take home to recreate the interactive activity at home or in a classroom. Slow Food USA will present attendees with nuts, berries, and nutrition information at a granola-making exhibit, company Solar One will offer an interactive miniature solar car exhibit, and the Brooklyn Compost Project will invite attendees to create their own miniature worm bin to take home.

In the panel "Emerging Green-Collar Jobs," five energetic leaders of green-collar training programs for teens and young adults will describe their programs and provide tips on getting involved in the growing field of environmentally sustainable industries. Workshops are also aimed at enlivening discussion about youth involvement in community greening, with six workshops led or co-led by young people. "Drip Irrigation for Community Gardens" will feature Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment (BASE) students describing their work installing water-wise systems in Brooklyn community gardens, plus practical instruction on how to install a drip irrigation system in any garden. "Cooking Up a Healthy Future" is hosted by EATWISE teen participants, who will cook a healthy recipe and discuss the nutritional value of their food—as well as the importance of cooking for one's self, the barriers that exist that keep many families from doing so, and potential solutions to these problems. And workshops like "Propagation Tips for the Frugal Gardener," "Kitchen Botany," and "Starting a Children's Garden Program" provide adults with clear and compelling ideas and instructions for engaging the youth in their lives, be it at home or in a school environment. (For a list of workshops, please see below.)

Robin Simmen, director of GreenBridge at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, says, "Making Brooklyn Bloom is an exciting, inspiring event that sparks ideas about using gardening to ‘green' the urban lifestyle for every citizen and generates energetic discussion about caring for our precious urban resources. This year we're thrilled to focus on one of the urban environment's most precious resources—its youth!" She added, "GreenBridge has been educating communities on urban greening since 1971, and the Garden has been educating youth about gardening for nearly a century: so we are proud to share our expertise in a way that empowers organizations, community gardeners, and—most importantly—our country's youth to rethink what the future holds for themselves and their neighborhoods."

Making Brooklyn Bloom will also present a series of short films. Footage from BBG's archives will give a charming historical perspective on the youth gardening BBG has been engaged in for nearly a century. Plus, a series of short videos made by "green teens"—including one of BBG's teenage Garden Apprentices—will give a first-person look at how youth are experiencing the greening of their communities.

The critical work of educating the next generation of caretakers of our environment is part of Brooklyn Botanic Garden's core mission. For most of its 99 year history, BBG has been at the forefront of engaging youth in environmental stewardship— from establishing the first children's garden in a botanic garden anywhere in the nation in 1915 to developing, along with its partner the Prospect Park Alliance, the groundbreaking Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment (BASE) high school in 2003. BASE students are involved in many BBG programs—including Making Brooklyn Bloom—and the Garden itself is an integral part of field study and research. The Garden offers a number of other signature Education programs, including the Garden Apprentice Program (GAP), which gives teens an opportunity to learn about urban agriculture and the environment while developing career skills, and Project Green Reach, a widely respected outreach program for K–8 teachers and their classes from Brooklyn's Title I schools.

No preregistration is required for Making Brooklyn Bloom, but it is suggested that visitors register by 10 a.m. at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Palm House to secure their first choice of workshops. For more details on Making Brooklyn Bloom, please visit bbg.org/vis2/2009/mbb/.

Workshop topics (* indicates hands-on; ° indicates workshops co-led by teens and/or teen-friendly topics):

Exhibitors include:

Visitors to Making Brooklyn Bloom will also have an opportunity to enjoy a delicious lunch at the Zagat-rated Terrace Café, take a free BBG Seasonal Highlights Tour at 1 p.m., and view the stunning botanical illustration exhibit, "My Favorite Garden," in the Steinhardt Conservatory Gallery.