Award Winning Green Teens Return to Trackside!

After winning several Connecticut State Youth Awards for vegetables and flowers grown by Wilton teens, The Wilton Garden Club and Trackside Teen Center are bringing the Green Teens program back to Trackside. Teen participants will work together with experienced gardeners from the Wilton Garden Club to design garden beds, plant, maintain and harvest produce, and learn how to cook garden vegetables. Teens will also have an opportunity to give back to their community as healthy produce raised in the Green Teens garden will be donated to the Wilton Food Pantry.

The Green Teens program is open to students in grades 5 through 8. This will be a community service project for youth to earn service hours. Green Teens will meet at the gardens at Trackside on Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5:00pm from May 2nd to June 6th. There will also be an opportunity for friends and family to volunteer to maintain the gardens over the summer months. Registration is free and can be completed online at trackside.org/green-teens.

Laurie Musilli and Pam Nobumoto are coordinating the Green Teens program for the Wilton Garden Club. The program is also being supported by Jim Hunter of the Wilton High School Organic Garden and Jonathan Kirschner of Ambler Farm. Both organizations will be donating seedlings to the program. Other groups supporting the garden this summer will be many Wilton Girl Scouts and Boy Scout Troop 20. They will assist with weekly produce and flower harvesting and delivery.  

The Neighborhood Garden at Trackside was originally built by Girl Scout Karina Olsen for her Girl Scout Gold Award Project in 2011. She and other Wilton High School students grew vegetables and flowers at the garden for many years for the Wilton Food Pantry. In the Spring of 2015, Steven Batter Jr. and Nicholas Johnson of Boy Scout Troop 20 designed, constructed, and installed new raised beds and a tool shed at the garden for their Eagle Scout projects. In the Spring of 2016, Sean Bergen added two more raised beds and Michael McElroy completed a tri-section compost bin as their Eagle Scout Projects.

For more information and registration, visit www.trackside.org/green-teens  For any questions, contact Trackside Program Director Amy Nassef at (203) 834-2888 or email Amy@trackside.org.