The five working groups are working hard on their separate projects, and we (The Social Media and Documentation group) had the privilege of catching up with each team independently. Here’s the scoop:

Basil interviewed the construction team, who had bonded extremely well, and were in the process of building an extension to the shed. It was hot, but their spirits were high. They also started the process of irrigating the cooling house.

Jasmine interviewed the Concourse Lake group and discovered that they were giving tours of concourse lake to other volunteer groups, along with those necessary tasks like weeding. Their group leader (Lindsey Bushong) raved about how independently motivated her group is becoming.

Erica Headen interviewed the Marketing group, who has been establishing new methods of advertising for their Friday farmer’s market — including developing healthy recipe cards and creating fliers which describe the benefits of supporting local food systems.

Freddie followed the design group and found out that the group is inclined to pursue more artistic projects, like the development of a mural at the farm. And finally, our group has been making lots of art, doing film projects, and photographing the whole process. Hope to see you at the gardens!

– Erica, Jasmine, Basil, Freddie, and Sierra

It has been a busy time at Urban Tree Connection and Neighborhood Foods, with today wrapping up the second week of our summer teen program through the Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN).  The Social Media group, a team of five teens in the program are here with their first installment of weekly PYN blog posts!

UTC Staff leads orientation on the first day of the PYN Summer Teen Service Learning Program

The youth that are taking part in Urban Tree Connection’s summer program are exhilarated about their new jobs. For the week of July 9th, we asked kids to express their feelings about their new ventures as working people. This is what they had to say after being asked questions by the Social Media group:

The Marketing Group felt as though this is the job that could lead to bigger things. As they took on their business, they showed a multitude of work ethic. They dealt with many parts of nature to get a feel for their marketing voyage.

The Construction Group learned about construction in a way they never knew
before. Construction, as you deal with your hands, gives the possibility in which our
young men and women have shown not only can they build—but they can make a mean build. We asked about their work and whether it brought new possibilities to UTC, in which they said, “our construction is bringing new life to the world”.

For the Concourse Lake Group, the most interesting thing about this week was teamwork, water fights, and lesson planning. We also asked them what was the least
interesting thing of the week, to which the response was weeding, and walking a lot.
They also learned about the deeper of meaning of themselves, and how good they are and how many skills they all have.

The Garden Design Group got to work with young kids at the Pearl Street garden, which they said was bittersweet, because it was fun but the kids are a handful! The most interesting thing was that they mapped out some of the gardens.

Our group (the Social Media Group) had a very interesting week. We had a chance to be creative and express our views by learning different film techniques, making blind contour drawings, writing poetry and making odes to vegetables.

The Social Media group (who has written this blog) is planning a public film festival put on by SCRIBE for Saturday, August 11, which we invite our public adventurers to participate in. The fun is starting!

-Freddie, Jasmine, Erica, Sierra, and Basil