Dinner and Silent Auction – May 12
Ever had a lentil meatloaf? Pesto made from home grown arugula? The famous carrot cake of Rogers Park’s own Sweet Atilla’s?
Please join us on Saturday, May 12, for three vegetarian courses featuring produce from our garden prepared by personal chef Amanda Schmies and served by LETS GO Chicago staff. And after you fall in love with the Sweet Atilla carrot cake, we’ll give you a gift certificate to use when you go by there yourself.
A variety of donated goods and services from Rogers Park businesses will be up for bid in a silent auction. Goodies from The Coffee Shop, The Mustard Seed, Flatts and Sharpe, Clark Devon Hardware, and many other local supporters will be available, and other surprises are guaranteed.
We’ll be opening the auction at 7 and serving the first course at 7:30. Seating is limited and tickets are $30 per person ($100 for four); RSVP to team@letsgochicago.org.
Three Spring Garden internships available for high school students in Rogers Park
Click here to download the application.
Click More to read the full internship description.
(more…)
Updates from the Garden
We took the kids to the greenhouse at Gale Academy this weekend to start our vegetables!
We also discovered that sometimes your chickens will like to hide their eggs. Silly Goose!
Anybody up for a scrambled egg party? SO MANY
Finally, we put our tarp back on our hoop house in Steve’s yard! I checked it yesterday morning and it was 80 degrees inside! Helllooooo spring 
~molly
LETS GO Chicago – Round 2!
Cross-posted from Solutionaries.net.
After a successful first year, the Chicago Summer of Solutions team is back and ready for more. In fact, we have been plotting it ever since we put our gardens to bed last October!
What we learned in 2011 will help us build up 2012 into an experience you won’t want to miss. (more…)
Make your tax-deductible donations to LETS GO Chicago online!
Click below and enter your donation into the fields labeled "Environmental Education" and "Summer of Solutions"
We’ve added a donation button to our page to improve the process for grassroots contributions. If you’d like to contribute to our Children’s Garden programming or to support young people participating in the Summer of Solutions, please visit our donations page for more information. One-time and recurring donations are easy to set up through our new online system.
The support of individuals continues to enable us to do amazing work in the Rogers Park community. Thank you to all for your ongoing belief in us and the part you play in helping to build a greener future for our neighborhood.
DEADLINE EXTENDED: Apply to be a Chicago Summer of Solutions 2012 Program Leader!
The application for 2012 Program Leaders is now LIVE! We will be accepting the initial round of applications through NOVEMBER 29TH DECEMBER 20TH. After that date, applicants will be considered on a rolling basis. This is in an attempt to identify new program leaders prior to the Regional January Gathering in Chicago (Date TBD).
In 2012, our program will focus on these three major project areas:
- Youth Garden Education - Our children’s garden program will continue to be a mainstay of Chicago Summer of Solutions. For 7 weeks this summer, leaders and participants will engage neighborhood youth between the ages of 5-12 in growing their own food, learning about nutrition, and cooking healthy meals for family and friends. Through the program, the children will build community, practice teamwork, and enjoy a trip to a local, organic farm.
- Community Yard Sharing - In 2011, we experimented with a lease program to turn a neighbor’s backyard into an urban vegetable oasis. Next year, we plan to roll out a full scale yard sharing program connecting neighbors to unused land in the community to both build relationships and increase access to fresh foods in Rogers Park. Be a part of a major shift in urban land use as we bring this project to scale!
- Green Infrastructure - Ever wanted to tackle stormwater issues in an urban area? We will be doing just that as we work to build 100 rain gardens in Rogers Park in 2012. Program Leaders will be trained to facilitate the installation, maintenance, and marketing of rain gardens in the community. This project will be conducted in partnership with the Center for Neighborhood Technology and may include a jobs training program for teens if resources allow.
If you would like to apply, please do so ASAP at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dE9SbEV5SnJMZmtBLWQ0Ynd0M1lJM3c6MQ#gid=0. Any questions, contact Peter Hoy at petermhoy@gmail.com or 773-414-4242 or Molly Costello at mollyccostello@gmail.com or 714-745-8558.
***Program Leader positions may include a stipend for both the spring planning period and summer program. These stipends are dependent upon grants we are waiting to hear back on as well as our team’s fundraising efforts. We will do everything in our power to ensure that money will not be a limiting factor for those interested in this position.***
Mystery Squash
“Holy Cow! Look at the squash! Its huge! What the heck is it??… **pondering** I think.. I think those are pumpkins.” Well it turns out the mysterious squash plant that took over the yard was actually beautiful pumpkins! Sometimes in the garden you are greeted with wonderful surprises. Our three plants grew somewhere around 25 lovely light orange fruits. We made good use of them in garden club! We cut them up and decorated them with vegie monster faces and then used them to decorate the garden and porch
Stay tuned
Hi all,
We are currently updating the content of our page and will be posting exciting information about our fall activities in the coming week. The groundwork we laid this summer is producing great yields and there is more to come. Please feel free to contact us at anytime at sos.chicago.2011@gmail.com if you would like to get involved, learn more, or have any questions for our team.
Thank you for your patience as we put the next phase together.
Cheers,
The Team at LETS GO Chicago
