Growing up, Dailela Williams found worms gross. She would squirm at the sight of their soft, pink bodies digging into the earth.
Williams, now grown up, held onto those childish feelings as she and her young students recently watched dozens of composting worms find their way through tons of dirt and make a home out of a newly built garden bed.
“It’s like oh my god!” Williams exclaimed laughing, her voice flickering with excitement.
Williams is a co-founder of the Future Leaders’ Learning Center, 6139 W. North Ave. in Oak Park, and their daycare center was one of 11 early childhood programs selected for a grant by the Collaboration for Early Childhood.
Collaboration, an Oak Park-based nonprofit committed to providing resources to families and children under 5, received a $ 8,120 grant from the Albrecht Poss Family Foundation to help in several local daycare and schools Install raised beds. Funding provided centers and schools with supplies such as soil, compost pods and worms, as well as additional money to buy seeds and plants.
The River Forest Community Center, Concordia University Early Childhood Education Center, Oak Park and River Forest Daycare, and St. Catherine-St. Lucy School are just a few of the other recipients. A complete list of the scholarship holders can be found on the cooperation’s website at collab4kids.org.
The raised beds – which are 2.4 by 4 meters and made of cedar wood – were installed last month. The collaboration partnered with other local businesses and organizations such as The Backyard Farmer, Deep Roots Project and Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm to deliver the materials.
The idea behind the project was simple: it’s about giving children the opportunity to learn through gardening, said Rebecca Streit, chairman of the board of the cooperation. Planting enables children to see the cycle of life before their eyes and draws on lessons beyond science.
“There is just a really rich foundation for all kinds of things,” Streit said, adding that there can be so many questions with planting, such as: What do you like to eat? Or what flowers attract pollinating insects? “It’s a really great way to be sneaky in class.”
Those thoughts sounded true to Williams, who said that some of the families do not have access to green spaces because they live in apartment buildings. For Williams, having that garden bed within her reach means she can now offer her students a real hands-on experience. You can play with the earth, see the worms slide in and out of the earth, and see their seedlings grow, she said.
Gingi Lahera, teacher and creative director at the Arts Language Music Alliance in Forest Park, is another fellow of the collaboration. Lahera, who has converted part of her house into a multifunctional classroom, sees her garden bed as a springboard to create this “natural paradise” for herself and her students.
Since it was put up, Lahera said she started hanging out more outside, breaking clumps of dirt that she saw in flower beds and in her yard. Let her imagination run wild, thinking about the types of flowers and plants she wanted in her room, including lilacs, hydrangeas, and maybe even a fruit tree.
Over at the Future Leaders ‘Learning Center, Williams’ students have already picked out some marigolds and morning bells for their garden. They were drawn to the bright colors of the flowers, the yellows and blues that shot out of bed, she said.
“It means a lot,” said Williams of participating in the funding initiative. “Not only do you learn, but I also learn how to garden. I learn so much about work [to grow the plants]how important the soil is to growth. … It means the world to me that you have this experience. ”
