Creating a Hope Garden: Sudbrook’s Story
With the support and volunteer efforts from students at Sudbrook Magnet Middle School, Blue Water Baltimore partnered with the school to design and install two gardens on school grounds.
What made this greening effort successful were the more than 300 students who worked together to create what they call their “Hope Garden”.
We asked those students, “What motivated them to volunteer in creating the school gardens?” Here is what some of them had to say:
- “Helping the environment motivated me to create the gardens. The earth is polluted from the runoff of oils and nutrients. The garden will help stop the polluted water from the entering different bodies of water” —Jeanell Quiambao
- “I have always liked playing an important role in conserving the environment. The entire activity was fun. We learned about the different types of plants and the impact of removing impervious surfaces” —William Reny
- “I love nature and saving the earth. I wanted to make a change for the world. Also, I like spending time outside with my friends and teachers” —Ijea White
- “I thought it would be fun to be active outside, but also to help the ecosystem. Now that our school has these gardens, it looks more appealing and it catches sediments runoff” —Alex Weinberg
- “Honestly, the Hope Garden was extremely ugly. It looked so sad. So taking away the trash and cleaning it was like cleaning my room. It made me proud in the end. Now I’m more aware of cleaning up litter and trash” —Anna Genda
- “The fact that kids at my school and in my community didn’t know that nature creates beauty, made me sad. So I wanted to show them how volunteering a little time can make great things” —Mallory Quinn.
- “Because the smallest thing we do can impact the environment in a huge way” —Kate Burgonio
- “I volunteered in the gardens to make a difference with pollution, and to show everybody that anyone can help the world” —Sheniah O’Brien
- “I wanted to help Sudbrook look better and to create a place for student to sit outside” —Gavin Pringle
- “Seeing how in our ordinary lives we do so much damage to our environment, I felt like I needed to help make a change” —Kingsley W.
LEARN MORE
To learn more about the Sudbrook “Hope Garden,” read our 2013 Annual Report. The Gwynns Falls story in the Annual Report is about the greening efforts involved with creating the school gardens and the 300 students that were the catalysts for all aspects of the project.
VOLUNTEER TODAY
Don’t wait. Get involved and volunteer with Blue Water Baltimore today.