DATE: 3/1/06

CONTACT: WRITER: Edward Smith, (803) 502-1683 or 502-1688; esmith492004@yahoo.com

At-risk kids win national gardening award

AIKEN – A green thumb means you’re good at gardening. If you’re very good at it, you could win awards.

That’s just what the kids in the Youth Development Center (YDC) did recently when they submitted their “ Getaway Garden” in a national gardening contest sponsored by the National Gardening Association (NGA).

Their garden project was one of just 50 first-prize winners chosen to receive the 2006 Youth Garden Award. Some 1,363 school and community gardening programs nationwide submitted applications. The YDC was the only winner from South Carolina.

Located in Aiken County, the facility serves the state’s non-violent juvenile offenders as part of Clemson University’s Youth Learning Institute, in partnership with the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice.

The prize consists of a curriculum/book package from the NGA, and a $500 gift card from The Home Depot, including a 10 percent discount for one year.

When word came by E-mail that they had won, students in the program were ecstatic, according to YDC Director Reilly Hammond.

“About the only time I see them this happy is when they leave to return home,” he said. “This only serves to validate what we’re trying to do here at the Youth Development Center – create and enhance services and programs that serve troubled youth in South Carolina.”

The center is the only one of its kind in the state.

NGA is a leading national provider of K-12, plant-based educational materials. According to Hammond, the gift card and materials will help students improve and expand their garden, which is now in its second year. Teachers and staff also use the garden plot as a hands-on educational tool, he said.

File photos of “ Getaway Garden” and the YDC program are available on request.

Contact: Edward Smith, (803) 502-1683 or 1688; fax (803) 502-1693; or email esmith492004@yahoo.com.

END