Bringing people together now is more important than ever. With the pandemic forcing people to stay apart for so long, it’s been difficult to create the sense of community that is usually so present in University City. 

The Growing Together event at Brittany Woods Middle School on May 1 was the perfect place to bring people together again. The very purpose of the event was to bring together U. City families during COVID and incorporate the gardening aspect since gardening and sustainability are growing in importance at Brittany Woods.
The orchestrators of the event started planning in January, after receiving a grant for the project. It was mainly a student-led event, with assistance from Anne Cummings, TAGD teacher at Brittany Woods. The event had a great turn out, and consisted of fun activities like a dunking booth, an ice cream truck, yoga, balloon animals and more. In the courtyard of the school, families were able to get their plants, plant them, and then take their planters home. There was also a drive-by option where people could come pick up plants. 

“I enjoyed [the event],” Alara Stewart, sophomore, said. “I think I got a really good experience out of it because I’ve planned big projects before, but it was nice to have Mrs. Cummings help us. It did get stressful at times but we handled it really well and we were really organized.”

There is a possibility of a second event, but no set plans yet. However, with the increasing importance of environmentalism, it’s safe to say the odds of a second event are high. 

“Environmentalism is important to me because I think [it] goes into different aspects of equality,” Stewart said. “It actually incorporates issues of racism, healthcare, housing, and it also tackles overproduction and overconsumption. This project is really good because we’re focusing on the more underprivileged groups of U. City district families and trying to make sure we’ve reached out to everybody.”

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