Daisies Clean the Village Green

Seventeen members of Calvary Christian School Daisy Troop #15925 received a “Plant a Garden Patch” on March 27, after working at the Village Green with VG volunteers Marge Gold and Betsy Collins.
“First, we had a brief history lesson about the Green [funded and built by the community in 1972-73], then we divided the girls into four groups,” Gold said.
They took turns scrubbing the bricks and the fountain, washing the mailbox and planting nasturtium seeds and impatiens seedlings.
“Betsy had each girl use a marker to put her name on a stake so they could identify the flower they planted,” Gold said. “The girls can also check back in a few weeks to see if any of the nasturtium seeds sprouted. They all got to do everything because we rotated them from task to task.”
After cleaning and planting, Collins gave the first graders a brief talk about growing plants from seeds.
Each girl was given a small tomato plant in a Dixie cup with instructions on how to transplant it at home. (Bruce Schwartz, a 2013 Sparkplus winner grows the plants from seed for Village Green’s Earth Day.)
The Daisys also were given notepads, bookmarks and a coupon for a free smoothie from Robeks.
“This is my favorite Daisy event because this was one of my favorite places I used to go when I was a baby,” said troop member Barrett Eastman. Her mom Regan Eastman, a troop leader, took a 2009 Christmas card picture of her two daughters at the Green.
Regan said, “One mom told me that she didn’t know this area of the Palisades had a name. What I love about being a Troop leader is the girls learn something from each activity, as do the parents.”
“The girls were darling,” Gold said, “and the families of the girls donated $540 to the Village Green. This was so unexpected and generous of all of them.”