Thank you St. Croix Valley Area Learning Center!

Seated - L to R:  Kelly Fossum, Ryan Jerentosky, Elliot Svendsen
Standing - L to R:  Charlie Acker, Jaymen Mihm, Brian Dickie, Jackson Maiers, Max Christenson, Henry Simmons, Kaleigh Dallman, Mary Sullivan, Mitchell Doruff, Tori Desparois, Kelsey Ellis, Josh Anderson
(Click to Enlarge)

We received extra photos from the St. Croix Valley Area Learning Center of planting day, which gives us  opportunity to extend another "Thank You" to this great group of young adults.

We are so thrilled and excited that the students have now begun their own garden project!!  You can watch their progress at:  http://scvalc.blogspot.com/  This garden will bring full circle learning... A "Life Lab" of sorts with an opportunity to have hands-on-learning of:

Health & Well Being: Healthy Eating, Cooking, Food Preservation

Agriculture: Crop Rotation, Soil Erosion, Plant Extinction

Environment: Fossil Fuels and Alternative energy, Water Conservation

 Science: Soil Testing, plants, cycles, ecology, weather

Community: Charity, Volunteerism, Commerce

To paraphrase a quote from Rachel Carson:  "For the youth. . . it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early learning are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused - a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love - then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response . . . It is more important to pave the way for youth to want to know than to put them on a diet of facts that they are not ready to assimilate."

Congrats students on your new garden venture, and we look forward to the days that you can join us in the RCS Giving Garden!  You, in turn, inspire all of us!