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Seed Packets for Donations at the Parkside Elementary Fair!

Seed Packets for Donations at the Parkside Elementary Fair!

We are so grateful to the Parkside Elementary Carnival Committee for granting us a vendor booth at their event.  They were wonderful in providing us a table and lots of traffic during the event.  We most enjoyed meeting people and telling them what The AG Project is about.  People were so generous and enthusiastic when they learned that we have an AG Project garden in the works at their school.  Yay!  We are waiting for the district’s approval for a garden site at Parkside and will be moving forward in the upcoming days.

At this event, we offered seed packets of jewel dwarf nasturtium, bird & butterfly wildflower mix, heirloom red cherry tomatoes, and heirloom California Wonder peppers.  So many fair attendees were generous in giving us a donation for the seeds.  We hope that the seeds grow into beautiful flowers, plants, and veggies to bring beauty to their gardens and nourishment to their bodies.  If you bought seeds from us: here is where you can find the planting directions.

We raised over $170 at this event, and we are delighted!  There are so many things that we can buy with that money:  one third of an initial garden installation, seeds and plants to refresh all of our sites for the year, or garden art to stimulate the senses plus some gardening tools are all possibilities.  Please know that we carefully consider every expenditure to maximize the benefit to our schools and gardens.  Thank you for being a part of it!

Back: Patricia Robertson, Michele Vaughan, Anu Mohapatra Front: Aniket!  He is the "A" in the "AG" Project, which stands for "Aniket's Garden" :-)

Back: Patricia Robertson, Michele Vaughan, Anu Mohapatra
Front: Aniket! He is the “A” in the “AG” Project, which stands for “Aniket’s Garden” 🙂

The beautiful plant in the photo was purchased through a new non-profit friend that we met at the Parkside Fair, Upside of Down.  They raise Down syndrome awareness and support education, research, and opportunities.  They were at the Parkside Fair selling these beautiful plants grown at the Down Home Ranch to raise money to support a beloved teacher currently undergoing cancer treatment.  It was a pleasure to connect with them!

 

Holiday Gift Giving: Honor a Special Someone & Support Special Kids!

Holiday Gift Giving: Honor a Special Someone & Support Special Kids!

Are you looking for a thoughtful holiday gift?

Would you like start a Thanksgiving tradition of giving thanks for dear friendships? 

During this season, do you seek out memorable ways to honor loved ones?

Please consider making a donation to The AG project this holiday season.  We would love to help you honor someone special while also aiding a local school as they build a sensory garden for special students.

Donations of $10 or more will receive a mailed card acknowledging that a donation was made in honor of your friend or loved one.  We are happy to mail it to you for purposes of gift giving or we can mail it directly to the recipient.  Please indicate the full name and address you wish the card to be mailed to in the “Add special instructions” link during the Paypal process.

Donations of $25 or more will be acknowledged as part of a virtual garden that will be on our web site through the entire 2012 holiday season.  Please let us know who you would like to honor by clicking on “Add special instructions” during the Paypal check out process.

Thank you for helping us help special kids grow and learn!  We wish you a very happy holiday season!

 

 

On a fundraising path!

On a fundraising path!

We are continuing on a fundraising path to raise money to put more school sensory gardens in place in the Central Texas area.  We were excited to complete our first two fundraisers, Back-to-school haircuts in partnership with Salon Republic of Austin and selling water at the Pecan Street Festival.

Our next fundraiser is quickly approaching.  Please join us for a garage sale this Saturday, October 27.  The location is in the COLD SPRINGS neighborhood in Leander at 2513 MARBLE SLAB LANE. We’ve got some great stuff, especially nice holiday stuff for kids and brand new Pampered Chef sample items. Come find us!!!

Then stay tuned for another special idea we have in the works.  It’s a “win-win” that will help us as we continue to build school sensory gardens, and it will be an excellent gift idea for the people on your list who have everything or who hold a special place in their hearts for local, child-centered causes.

 

Melanie at the Pecan Street Festival Water Bottle Fundraiser

Proud to Be Endorsed by Leander ISD

Proud to Be Endorsed by Leander ISD

We are so excited to be currently working with three schools in Leander ISD.  Thank you to Dr. Bret Champion, Leander ISD Superintendent, and Sandy Kelly-Khan, Leander ISD Director of Special Education, for their enthusiasm for The AG Project.  We are energized by their positive responses and support of this project in Leander schools and can’t wait to further our long-term partnership and commitment to the amazing students in Leander ISD.

  • Dr. Bret Champion, Leander ISD Superintendent, says: “I’m excited to see the work of the AG Project in schools in Leander ISD.  One of our areas of focus in LISD is to ensure we are educating the whole student, academically, socially, and emotionally.   We can only accomplish this with the assistance of terrific people and organizations like the AG Project.”
  • Sandy Kelly-Khan, the Director of Special Education for Leander ISD, supports The AG Project and has been helpful in connecting us with special education teachers in Leander schools.  She has a  background as a teacher and a school psychologist and feels strongly that many students can benefit from these gardens.  We are grateful that she thinks our project is MARVELOUS and can be counted amongst our supporters.

http://www.leanderisd.org/

Our FIRST Fundraiser!

Our FIRST Fundraiser!

We have been moving fairly swiftly through this process of becoming a non-profit.  We are official with the State of Texas and are in the process of applying for 501(c)3 designation federally.  It’s now time to turn our attention to raising some money for our first three gardens that are going in and/or receiving support from us this fall in Leander ISD at Bagdad Elementary, Four Points Middle School, and Leander High School.

We are so grateful to Amanda Harp, Blondie, and Monica Johnston, hairstylists at Salon Republic.  For the month of August, they will be giving $15 kids’ back-to-school haircuts.  They will donate 50% to The AG Project.  To find out more about the fundraiser and to print out a coupon flyer, please click here.  This is a great way to get a good-quality haircut, check off something from your back-to-school, to-do list, and help Austin-area kids at the same time.

Thank you all so much for your support and interest in The AG Project.  We love your comments, suggestions, and messages of support.  Keep them coming!  🙂

We are official!

We are official!

We received great news that we are now official as a Texas non-profit corporation!  Our official “birthday” is May 31, 2012.  We are currently in the process of applying for federal recognition as a non-profit.

In the meantime, we are busy starting our first fundraisers and will update our site soon with that information.  We have three confirmed schools we will be assisting with the implementation of new gardens or maintenance/expansion of existing gardens for the fall of 2012.  We are very excited to be working towards helping these students receive rich sensory exposure and social opportunities through gardening.

The AG Project Begins a Blog!

The AG Project Begins a Blog!

There are currently five of us, a mixture of teachers and parents, on a wonderful journey as we join together in becoming The AG Project, Inc.  We are in the process of gaining our designation as a non-profit organization.  We absolutely thrilled to have our first three schools interested in receiving gardens from us for some of their special education students.  Soon we will begin fundraising so that we can help the schools have their gardens ready for planting this fall.  Hang on; this is going to be an exciting ride!

A big step for us today is the launch of our first web site at www.theAGproject.org.  We can’t wait to share our ideas with you as we continue on this mission to enable schools to provide a rich sensory environment through gardening for their students.