CS Explorers, our youth participants (ages 9-12), won a Citizens Committee for NYC Award for the community garden they envisioned and installed adjacent to Union Settlement Association’s Rising Stars program, our partnering community center, at the epicenter of NYCHA’s Washington Houses in East Harlem.

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CS Explorers are the first youth to build a compost bin for New York City Housing Authority property, the nation’s largest public housing authority, citywide. They are educating their peers and community center staff on composting! In the coming weeks, we will post photos and more about this experience. Stay tuned!

In Concrete Safaris’ first summer program, CS Explorers planned and hosted their first Summer Garden Party for the 100+ children and staff at Union Settlement’s Rising Stars site. Activities included potato sack races, face painting, a dance performance and competition, a singing competition, locally grown corn (the favorite healthy food), and a magic show.

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In April 2008, CS Explorers began the rewarding process of transforming the grounds of NYC Housing Authority’s Washington Houses just outside Union Settlement Association into a shade perennial and herb garden. Here is a recent photo. CS Explorers added 2 more raised beds (the boxes located at the center) for shade herbs, such as lemon balm, spearmint, and sweet woodruff, this past week. The plants they chose for this garden will grow to be 4″-10′ tall in the next 10 years.

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