project leader
Carol D
location
755 Fulton Street
(Aurora)
latest update rss
Thank you to our donors!

the project

FULTON Academy of Excellence is an elementary pilot school in Aurora, Colorado. Launching our community garden will be the combined effort of our Garden Leadership Team, consisting of students, parents, neighbors, teachers, Central Baptist Church (partner), City of Aurora, Denver Urban Garden (DUG), and Aurora Public Schools. Our goal is to raise $5006 in online donations. If we don’t get the money in time, we’ll have to wait until the summer of 2016. Will you help us to grow our garden this coming season?

the steps

April 2014 – community readiness survey
May 2014 – city walk-through to choose location
July-August 2014 – survey teachers, students; convene Leadership Committee
September 2014 – input from all stakeholders, design workshop for Leadership Committee
October 2014 – community meeting open to the public to discuss plans and solicit feedback
November 2014 – fundraising begins in concert with district grants office
December 2014 – Denver Urban Garden drafts a “blueprint” and creates a line item budget
February 2015 – second community meeting to present design and budget
June 2015 – break ground
September 2015 – construction complete - just in time for the school year!

why we're doing it

Ninety-two percent of FULTON Academy students receive free and reduced lunch. They are inner city and speak twelve languages in addition to English: Karen, Nepali, Burmese, Mon, Amharic, Arabic, Swahili, Chuukese, Tigrinya, Oromo, Punijabi and Spanish. When some of our refugee parents were asked about their interest in a community garden, they immediately began pulling up photos of vegetables on their cells and asking, “Can you grow THIS in Colorado?” Many are displaced farmers from all over the world, and obviously this was about more than growing food. It was about regaining a little piece of what used to be home. When offered their own plot of land and free seeds from Denver Urban Garden (DUG), they acted as if they’d won the lottery. This was the first time that these diverse communities from Africa and Asia appeared to truly be collaborating. In addition Aurora Mental Health therapists who counsel our students have asked to use the space for “garden therapy.” Some of our students have experienced what no one should have to go through.

Conversation

Hey I live in this neighborhood and though I don't have children, I had no idea that the school was trying to start this. If your allowed to, you should post around the neighborhood, and share via social media, I bet you would pick up more donations that way. It would be great if this could happen!

budget

Disbursement Budget:

Compost $594

Planter mix $320

Vegetable wash station $8.33 (towards the estimated $150 expense)



RAISED = $950.00
less ioby Platform Fee  waived
less ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $27.67
TOTAL TO DISBURSE = $922.33

 

Original Budget:

raised beds (4"x6" cedar timbers @4'x8'x1.5') 7@$375 = $2625

compost for 3,300 sqft (yds delivered) 32@$33 = $1056

planter mix for 7 raised beds (yds delivered) 14@$40 = $560

garden signs (standard set) 1@$400 = $400

vegetable wash station 2@$365 = $365



SUBTOTAL = 5,006.00
ioby Platform Fee  35.00
3rd Party Payment Processing Fee (3%) 150
TOTAL TO RAISE = 5,191

 

updates

Thank you to our donors!

Schematic for A Taste of Home Garden

photos

This is where photos will go once we build flickr integration

donors

  • CVT
  • Clare Cummings
  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • Jen V.
  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • Josh H.
  • Jennifer J.
  • Jill Lliteras
  • PATRICIA T.
  • Carol Dallas