Meet the great team creating Ultimate Schoolyard Garden, Entrepreneurial Village

Ultimate Schoolyard Garden plan

To make the vision of the Ultimate Schoolyard Garden and Entrepreneurial Village a reality – it essentially takes a village of volunteers. The team assembled by the Catawba River District has already been meeting since March to develop the design and components of this project for the 2014 Southern Spring Home & Garden Show. These are dedicated professionals who are finding time in their schedules to give back to their community – and we are grateful.

These two projects will debut in Feb. 21 at the Southern Spring Home & Garden Show.

• The Ultimate Schoolyard Garden will pack dozens of doable ideas into a 30-by-30-foot display, including international gardens, rain gardens, aquaculture, hydroponics and garden walls. 
• The Entrepreneurial Village will give students at dozens of schools a way to market garden-related products, with proceeds going to support their school gardens. 

If a consultant were hired to design and implement this project, it would easily exceed a cost of $500,000. We are doing it on a fraction of that budget.

Join the team by becoming a sponsor

Our development manager, Terri DeBoo, is hard at work securing corporate sponsors.  Please recommend this project to your business network. And please contact me to learn more about how your group or company can support this great project. Send an email or call me at 704-562-8847.
– Edna Chirico, River District Executive Director

Ultimate Schoolyard Garden & Entrepreneurial Village Team

Project Management & Coordination

• Edna Chirico, Catawba River District 
• Rich Haag, Catawba River District, Communications
• Wanda Jean Campbell, Former Gaston County Business Partnership Director – Teacher/Entrepreneurial Village coordinator for Gaston County
• Shelly Lands, Entrepreneurial Village Accounting/Sales
• Terri DeBoo, Development & Sponsorships

Executive Board support

• Kathi Robinson, Novant Health/Catawba River Dist. Board 
• Ann Danzi, former Mountain Island Lake Marine Commissioner
• Beth Mack, Nutritionist

Structures team

• Beth Poovey, LandDesign – Garden Designer 
• Tony Hayes, CPCC Harper Campus
• Bert Lynn, Stewart Engineering

Horticulture team

• Dr. Cynthia Klemmer
• Annie West, CPCC Cato Campus
• Kaitie ODonnell, Living Color

School system liaisons

• Wayne Fisher, CMS STEM Team 
• Tammy Mims, Gaston County STEM Team 
• Valarie Yadko, Gaston County Business Partnerships

Mecklenburg Health Department

• Allison Nelson

Partners

• Allison Marshall, Gaston Cooperative Extension
• Kendall Kendrick, Mecklenburg Food Policy Council 
• Henry Owens, Friendship Gardens 
• Megan Lambert, Johnson and Wales
• Cynthia Marshall, Communities in Schools
• Mary Bures, NC Wildlife and Great Outdoor University
• June Blotnick , Clean Air Carolina 
• Ron Morgan & Sam Fleming, 100Gardens 
• Catherine Crocker,  Mecklenburg Coop. Extension/ 
• Jeffie Hardin, Rivendell Farms – Sustainable Working Farm & Whitewater Academy Garden Coordinator