About this project

Kensington Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) High School is working with Delaware Valley Green Building Council and Philadelphia Mural Arts Program to celebrate Earth Day this year at their new LEED Platinum school. To celebrate Earth Day and do their part in becoming environmental stewards they are planning an "Earth Day of Service" on Saturday, April 30, 2011 from 8am-4pm. The project is coordinated and lead by DVGBC's Emerging Professionals committee in collaboration with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, New Kensington Community Development Corporation, Urban Tree Connection and many other great organizations! Check out the project page for more info and to sign up to volunteer on the day of service: Earth Day of Service

Kensington CAPA is still in its first year of operating and students/faculty are still settling in to their new LEED Platinum school - the first one in Pennsylvania! Many people and organizations have shown their support and enthusiasm in wanting to teach the students about the "green" school that they attend. One of the ways they are doing that is with the creation of a vegetable garden / urban farm plot right in their own schoolyard! The project started with wanting to create a vegetable garden at KCAPA High School so that students could learn about fresh food harvesting and have a project to take on as their own learning experience.

Through a truly collaborative process, the design for the vegetable garden in the schoolyard started to take shape and involved many organizations both local to the school/community and throughout the city. A predominantly volunteer-based group of people met regularly with the school/students to develop the garden plan and design the mural with artist Brad Carney. The mural will be located behind the vegetable garden to help beautify and provide a nice back-drop to the space. The mural will be visible from many locations throughout the school and will help unify the space and incorporate elements seen in the school's contemporary architecture. The goal is that the schoolyard becomes a desired place to be for student relaxation, outdoor classroom learning, experiential learning in the vegetable garden and something for the students to be proud of as their legacy project in their first year of operating.

The students of KCAPA and the many organizations that are participating need your support to help make this project a reality. Your support means that the communities of Kensington/Fishtown can have access to fresh food and will teach the students why fresh food options are so important. The students will maintain the garden during school and we hope to help them create a Garden/Sustainability Club to keep learning more about sustainability and ensure the garden thrives. The money will be used to purchase materials for the mural and garden and for future maintenance of both. For the mural this will help with the design/artist fees, supplies, and vegetation, tools and materials for garden and other related site work in the schoolyard where the mural and garden are located.

The Delaware Valley Green Building Council, a chapter of USGBC, is an independent 501(c)(3) organization. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

To learn more about DVGBC and green schools: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtfyyZ4DpgY

Please help the Kensington CAPA students reach their goal of having a vegetable garden and mural art project in their "outdoor classroom" -- this legacy project will help serve them and their community indefinitely!