Newsletter

Spring 2002

Ripe From Downtown Symposium
Presented by Cleveland Botanical Garden

CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN PRESENTS RIPE FROM DOWNTOWNTM SYMPOSIUM

National Symposium Will Focus on Creating Garden-Based YouthEntrepreneur Programs

Cleveland, Ohio -March 12, 2002- Cleveland Botanical Garden has announced it will present the first Ripe from DowntownTM Symposium, at the Renaissance Hotel in Downtown Cleveland, July 17-20, 2002. The national event will focus on planning and developing garden-based businesses for young people, especially urban youth.

"A garden-based entrepreneur program is a dynamic and real-Iife way to interest youth in gardening while they acquire valuable business and job skills. These programs can also become catalysts for youth to enrich and beautify their communities by developing gardens," says Maureen Heffernan, director of Public Programs."

From a classroom basil business to a school's organic salad business, to herbal soaps to and salad dressings to selling flowers and produce at farmer's markets, participants will learn about dozens of practical garden-based products that youth can grow, make and sell.

"Our symposium will present the best ideas, methods, model programs, and resources for schools, public gardens, extension agencies and youth organizations to create successful garden-based entrepreneur programs for youth" Heffernan says.

Participants will take part in workshops and seminars that will guide them step-by-step through the process of creating a garden-based business, from very simple easy-to-manage programs to more ambitious endeavors.

The symposium will feature nationally known speakers and programs including:

• Monique Hunter, director of Food from the HoodTM a highly successful program located in south central Los Angeles that produces herbal salad dressings.
• Zenobia Barlow, director of The Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, who will speak on the importance of connecting urban youth to the healing power of gardening.
• Pat Gray, director of The Food Project, a Boston program that runs a youth farm and market project for inner city youth.
• Bobby Wilson, of The University of Georgia Extension Service's Atlanta Urban Gardening Program, who works with youth to make and sell craft items they make from gardens the youth plant and maintain.
• Valerie Kelsey, of The National Gardening Association, will present an in-depth workshop on How to Build a School Garden and Turn It into a School Business.
  

The symposium includes tours of school and youth market gardens and the award-winning Hershey Children's Garden at Cleveland Botanical Garden.

The symposium is named after the successful Ripe from Downtown salsa product developed by Cleveland Botanical Garden's Green Corps, a garden entrepreneur program for inner-city teenagers.

The symposium is co-sponsored by American Horticultural Society, American Community Gardening Association, American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, National 4-H Council, National Gardening Association, Food from the Hood, The Food Project, Youth Farm and Market Project, and Seattle Youth Garden Works.
Support for this symposium has been provided by the Lyla C. Foster Fund for Education and Outreach, 1525 Foundation, The McDonald Fund of The Cleveland Foundation.

For more information or to request a registration brochure, call (216) 721-1600 or visit www.cbgarden.org.

Cleveland Botanical Garden, a nonprofit public garden, is a national leader in urban horticulture and botanical education. Through community initiatives, the Garden introduces the benefits of gardening to thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds.

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