Barnes Beautification Project, Day 4

The woodchips arrive!

Barnes Beautification Project, Day 3

Barnes Beautification Project, Day 2

On day 2 of the Beautification project, gardening took center stage. Focusing on the "reuse" part of "reduce, reuse, recycle," we made a small terraced garden in one corner of the grounds using bricks and rocks from the pile of debris from Burlington Telecom putting in a transfer station:


The mural project continues to get filled in as well:


And, of course, the bobcat continues its work getting ready for the delivery of woodchips tomorrow:

Barnes Beautification Project, Day 1

In the spring of 2006, the kids at Barnes presented the PTO with a petition asking us to replace the pea stone under the play equipment in the front playground with something less abrasive. This summer, with support from Lowe's, CEDO and Alderson Environmental Contractor, we have taken this on as part of our summer beautification project, using all-volunteer labor. In addition to re-surfacing the front playground, we are increasing our garden space and muralizing the back entrance.

Thanks to the generous loan of a bobcat from Alderson Environmental Contractor, removing the pea stone from the playground won't be quite as labor-intensive as it would be by hand:


Our resident parent-artists Rebecca Hartwick and Maria Chomentowski are designing and organizing the painting of murals on the columns and ceiling of the back entrance to the school, with a sustainability theme:



(those are windmills, painted by one of the non-artist parent volunteers)

Of course, it wasn't all work, and there's nothing like working while surrounded by playing children:

First year of Barnes World Summer Academy concludes

On Wednesday, August 1st, the Barnes World Summer Academy, a joint project of the Sara Holbrook Community Center and Burlington Parks and Recreation, held its closing ceremony. The Academy, held at Barnes, provided low-cost summer childcare and education for kids from the Old North End and as far away as Colchester and Winooski. It emphasized "place-based learning," and different groups of kids took on projects such as identifying strengths and challenges in their neighborhood, researching and making proposals for community improvement.



The assembled crowd of kids, parents, and community leaders including Mayor Bob Kiss and representatives from Parks and Rec and CCTA heard how kids had spent the summer surveying each other, their families and the general public to identify areas in which Burlington could better serve their neighborhoods. Their proposals include:

* Reduce car traffic in the neighborhood;
* A community pool for Burlington, so Burlington families wouldn't have to travel to Winooski to swim in the summer;
* A free CCTA shuttle to North Beach, to reduce greenhouse emissions and allow families without cars to access this public beach; and
* Recycling bins at North Beach, to help reduce both littering and landfill.