CP&GC Partners with Roxbury Sunflower Project and Prospect Hill Academy
In 2020, with in-person activities and community outreach on hold due to the COVID lockdown, the Cambridge Plant & Garden Club (CP&GC) looked for novel ways to engage with the community and, specifically, with local students remotely, during the pandemic. The club’s hope was to inspire in students a closer connection with nature, public spaces, and knowledge of the plant world.
CP&GC members were inspired by Boston artist and community activist Ekua Holmes whose Roxbury Sunflower Project has planted hundreds of sunflowers in the historically Black neighborhood as symbols of hope, resilience, and empowerment. Together with Ms. Holmes, the club forged a partnership with the Prospect Hill Academy (PHA), one of the oldest and largest charter schools operating in Massachusetts.
CP&GC created an after-school curriculum for study of the sunflower, with a dynamic and diverse team, including Ms. Holmes, Carmen Mouzon from the Farm School, and Molly Edwards, Botanist and producer of “Science in Real Life (IRL)” on YouTube. Eight lessons were held remotely during the winter of 2020–21 with a group of middle school girls.
At the end of the program, the young women designed a garden of sunflowers and other annuals to be planted in the spring meeting outdoors could be comfortable and safe. CP&GC members and team met in person in late May to plant that garden at the entrance of Prospect Hill Academy building in Cambridge. We look forward to a continued partnership.
