The Virgin Islands National Guard presented a gardening workshop Wednesday morning to students at the Reading Rainbow School as part of VING’s commitment to Earth Day. VING traditionally holds informative environmental lectures and activities in the territory, including beach cleanups, and each year VING selects one school for an outreach initiative.

This year’s theme was “Lend a Hand, Save our Land,” and VING staff did just that by teaching the students and teachers how to keep the environment toxic free. During the workshop, Marcelle Heywood, VING environmental program director, gave the kids the skills needed to start a garden and the proper ways of maintaining it.

“The environment is everything around us,” Heywood said. “It’s the land, trees, plants, animals and pets; there are many different aspects of the environment.”

With miracle grow, plants in Styrofoam cups, plastic shovels and packages of seeds provided by Heywood, the youngsters were ready to plant. Heywood informed the kids on the safety rules needed to start a garden. She said they must always have their parents aware of what they are doing because “everything in the grass is not safe,” adding that there are unwanted weeds and poison ivy in the grass.

Heywood also spoke about the composting process and explained the benefits of growing a garden. Heywood said the kids parents could spend less money and harvest their own food. She showed the results of a gooseberry seed she planted in her yard by passing around a batch of berries displaying the outcome and growth.

Heywood said one of the benefits of growing her gooseberries is making gooseberry stew. She said she could make juice, jam and wine with her produce if she wanted too.

She also donates the excess gooseberries to her neighbors and the lighthouse mission as a way of protecting and conserving the environment by not throwing it away. Some of the kids said their parents also grow local fruits in their yard such as avocado, sour apple, sour sap and papaya.

After Heywood provided the lecture on gardening, a few kids were selected to plant seeds approximately two inches in the soil. They used empty yogurt containers, foam cups and other plastic materials as a substitute for their garden pots. They planted cucumbers, tomatoes and other seeds.

“I learned a lot of stuff I did not know and I want to show it to my daddy,” said 9-year-old Lea Cornelius.

Fourth-grader Amaya Belardo said, “I learned how to keep the environment clean and how to plant.”

Claudia Desormeaux, a fourth-grade teacher at Reading Rainbow, said she likes the idea of the kids learning about the proper ways of preserving the environment.

Nicalda Bruno, a third-grade teacher at Reading Rainbow, said, “The kids wanted to learn about planting crops.”

Heywood said the plants she brought would be given to the school as they prepare to do gardening. The students received a bag full of fun trinkets, a certificate and a graduation cap as a way of showing they were promoted to higher knowledge after their participation in the workshop.