Hi, my name is Joseph Drumn and I have been in Green City Youth for a long time now; from when it first started. This was one program that I was proud to be in because we were focused on greening the earth. We went on about seven trips to explore what greening the earth was like. We went to the Tinicium Wild Life Refuge as one of our trips. We saw how they purify water and things like the endangered praying mantis. On this trip we also saw Blue Herons and many other animals. We went on a trip to the zoo to share what we did with our Green City Youth Project. We have done things like plant trees in our WOLF Garden area. We have also done many other things which have to do with planting.
We have a group of about twenty to twenty-five students. Every time we do an activity like when we took our seedlings and planted them, we were all present for this activity. We would go to the room where we would sit and plant all these flowers and vegetable plants and it turned out to be a big hit. We also received the opportunity to take the plants home to grow after they have already sprouted from their “preplanned containers.” We were able to take home basil, four types of tomatoes, Nasturtiums and Zinnias. We must have planted over two 250 plants over the past eight months. This is one group activity that I would say turned out to be a great hit and I think it will continue to be a big hit.
My feelings about Green City Youth are that I really liked the program and it taught me how to care for my plants. We have done so much that it is impossible to sit here and tell you every little detail. We planted large pots with flowers and we have put them along the street beside our school. We also planted some big trees outside of the Kensington Culinary Arts building. I feel that we have at least “greened” some of our areas, including ours. I feel like I have done a lot with Green City Youth. This program has also helped me to start overcoming my fear of speaking out loud. I would also say that this is a program that helped me to become a stronger leader in many different aspects.
Ms. Roth and Mr. Stier were the ones that really started the Green City Youth Program. I believe that they have done a really good job setting and starting things up. If I were Dr. Yarmus, I would be an extremely proud principal because this program has also put Kensington Culinary High School out there in a good way saying that we are what our logo says, “One small school one great place.” We have changed our school’s appearance by doing this. If the principal sees this as being a really big hit, I’m very proud of the dedication that I have put into the school and into my community. I can see myself in this program again next year. I can see us coming back next year telling each other how our plants turned out and how many tomatoes we got from our plants.