The Roots & Shoots Intergenerational Garden Program was presented the first Conservation Educator Award at the Conservation Forum in Charlottesville on Nov. 3. Co- founded by Molly Brown and her late husband, Dirck, the Roots & Shoots program has been in operation in Lexington for more than 20 years. Its goals include uniting generations, creating a partnership between community groups, individuals, educators, parents and students while educating young children through hands-on gardening about the origin of food originates. Its flagship school garden at Waddell Elementary was recently refurbished and reopened in fall 2016 as an outdoor classroom for multiple grades and is a vital part of the curriculum at the school. Each year the program benefits over 300 students and incorporates 40 volunteers at the Waddell School alone.
The Roots & Shoots program began in Palo Alto, California where Molly and Dirck Brown were part of a group that created an educational garden that teamed senior citizen volunteers with elementary school students to plant and learn from the garden. When the Browns retired to Lexington, Virginia, they began to build partnerships in the community to create and build the Roots & Shoots Garden at Waddell Elementary School near their home. The Blue Ridge Garden Club has worked with the Roots & Shoots program at Waddell Elementary since the program’s inception. In that time, Roots & Shoots has received the Commonwealth Award in 1996 and national recognition from the American Horticultural Society and the Children and nature Network. Originally the program began with the second grade curriculum in 1995 but has since expanded to all grades, kindergarten through fifth.
Beyond classroom education, and in the words of its founders, the Browns, “The friendships developed between the older Roots and the younger Shoots help to promote positive attitudes between the generations.”
