FENWICK ISLAND – Fenwick Island’s Barefoot Gardeners Club is expanding its youth program offerings this summer with a weekly reading series for young children.
This week, members of the club’s youth program committee hosted its first of four story times for local and visiting children.
Located at the Fenwick Island Community Park, the weekly story time series provides young kids with hands-on activities that peak their interest for reading and learning.
Sue Clark, chair of the club’s youth program committee, said club members have hosted the event on a bi-weekly basis each July for the past eight years. Yet, because of the inconsistent schedule, many visiting children could not attend.
“There are times when it can be disappointing,” she said.
To offer a more structured schedule, Clark said committee members are offering the program each week throughout the month of July this year.
“That way we feel that there is more continuity,” she said.
This week, nearly 20 children came out for the club’s first story time event where they learned about the American flag, the life cycle of a butterfly and the root system of a plant.
“We have never had a response like we had today and believe me it was a welcome surprise,” Clark said. “The children and the parents became enthusiastic about everything we did.”
Clark said the park’s butterfly and vegetable gardens, installed by the Barefoot Gardeners, are the ideal places for children and their families to learn.
“It provides an activity for parents to do with their children,” she said. “Children aren’t just having fun, but also learning about nature.”
Shortly following story time, children had the opportunity to look for butterflies and caterpillars in the gardens, which Clark said are attracted to the milkweed, parsley and fennel that are grown there. Councilwoman Vicki Carmean, who co-founded the Barefoot Gardeners Club in 2004, said Clark, Susie Henicle and other committee members worked hard to make the program a success and attributed their knowledge and passion for the program to their prior professions.
“They are all retired teachers that run that program,” she said.
While kids who attended the program were taught various facts about plants and the animals and insects that benefit from them, Clark said the program exists to build interest and enthusiasm about what they are learning.
“Witnessing vegetables growing, experiencing the caterpillars as they feast on the garden herbs, and taking home a plant that they can grow in their garden, as well as reading books that children love to interact with,” Clark said. “this is the heart of our program.”
Carmean said the club’s mission is to beautify Fenwick Island and surrounding communities and to educate the community on gardening and nature. She said the story time program is just one of the many civic projects in which club members participate.
Over the years, the Barefoot Gardeners Club has planted flowers and native plants at the Fenwick Island Lighthouse, Justin’s Beach House, along median strips, and on both the north and south ends of the town.
Story time at the park will continue each Wednesday at 10 a.m. throughout the month of July.
