Sprouting Wings: Garden Outreach
Sprouting Wings is a gardening and nature studies program for youth provided by the South Carolina Botanical Garden at Clemson University. Various programs are provided to children ranging from age 6 to 18 years of age. Most of these children qualify as being either economically disadvantaged or disabled, but not all. Our goal is to instill a love of gardening and nature in general that will enrich the children's lives and plant seeds that will ensure that our natural world is appreciated and protected in the future.
The Sprouting Wings program is funded through the generous contributions of Mrs. Betsy Campbell and her late husband Mr. Robert Campbell, as well as from private donations.
Sprouting Wings Programs
After-School Programs
Sprouting Wings conducts after-school programs with various local schools. Two days a week, Central Elementary students are brought to the Hanson Nature Learning Center at the South Carolina Botanical Garden for activities. They learn about plants and animals, plant their own garden and create related arts and crafts.
Occasionally the Sprouting Wings program travels to schools to involve students in activities on their own school grounds, or accepts projects for local children's groups to help in the Garden.
York Place
Each Thursday, Sprouting Wings goes on the road to York, SC, to York Place Home for Children. This is an accredited residential treatment program for emotionally handicapped children sponsored by the Episcopal Church. Children as young as 6 and as old as young teenagers receive treatment in a caring, protective environment. At York Place, Sprouting Wings involves all of the children in gardening and nature activities. The children grow their own plants, take care of a vegetable garden, plant flowers around the grounds and maintain a nature trail.
The Peter Rabbit Garden
In order to give children in Sprouting Wings a place of their own to garden, the Peter Rabbit Garden was begun with the help of contributions from the Master Gardeners of the Foothills. Now complete, the Garden offers a place for children to seed, garden and watch their plants grow.