Fall 2011 

Dear Friends:

The George E. Archer Foundation has completed its first programming year, and we are thrilled with the results.

We approved grants for two schools and three youth-serving organizations in four south-central Indiana counties and reached more than 400 children.  Our grants helped get children outside and into the garden where they could learn about growing things, eat wholesome vegetables, enjoy the benefits of exercise and take real pride in their accomplishments.

This year’s five grants funded:

• Vegetable and prairie gardens at Pinnacle School in Bloomington, where children enjoyed eating tomatoes and peppers and learned about native plant communities
• A vegetable garden in Martinsville, where families worked with Kids With A Mission 4-H Club, donating part of their produce to local food banks
• A butterfly garden at McCormick’s Creek Elementary School near Spencer that featured nectar plants and larval food plants and grew a bumper crop of monarch butterflies
• Fencing and a shed at the Bloomington Boys and Girls Club camp near Lake Lemon that provided storage for tools and supplies related to the vegetable garden
• A vegetable and flower garden at the Brown County YMCA in Nashville, where Head Start kids and summer campers collaborated in planting and harvesting, donating part of the profit from their sales to charitable causes.

In addition, we are continuing our long history of support for Hilltop Gardens at Indiana University in Bloomington with a grant that provides scholarships for children enrolling in Hilltop’s summer gardening program, a collaboration with Bloomington’s Parks and Recreation Department.  Scholarships will be available for next summer’s program.

We are very proud of this promising start, and we look forward to supporting many more innovative efforts to “green young thumbs” in our communities. 

Sincerely,

Judith A. Granbois
President, The George E. Archer Foundation, Inc.