Help kids in this South Side Chicago school — it won't cost you a penny

Today’s guest post is by Elizabeth Seebeck, the founder of Oglesby Montessori Foundation.

by Elizabeth
Seebeck

Last February, 31 little bodies sat still in their small, Montessori classroom in one of the most impoverished neighborhoods of Chicago: the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood. The children were absolutely mesmerized by Beth, her dog, and her story.

Beth, Judy and the children in Oglesby’s Montessori Program.

It’s not every day that schoolkids get to meet a blind author who answers each and every question they have! And it’s not every day that students on Chicago’s South Side participate in a public Montessori program that develops their curious minds, stimulates their thirst for knowledge, and promises to encourage them to succeed in a neighborhood that makes few promises.

Children at the Oglesby Montessori School benefit from hands on and experiential learning
— like when Beth came and showed them how to read Braille. Now, our students are trying to take a huge step into that big world by building an urban farm and garden for their community to cultivate along with them.

The Oglesby Montessori Foundation funds this alternative school choice for families on the south side of Chicago, and this garden project is one of 5 finalists in a national contest sponsored by Teach for America and Fed Ex. If we win, we’ll get $25,000 for our garden proposal.

Three Potential Gardeners in Oglesby’s Montessori Program

Having free access to nutritious food, and being in touch with that food from seed to harvest is transformative. In order to win, we need the most votes for a short video we made about the garden project, and we need those votes by Friday, December 27. It doesn’t cost a thing to vote (all you need is a Facebook or Twitter account), so please vote for young Chicago gardeners!

Beth here: the site you use to vote is totally accessible with screen readers, so I was able to vote without looking at the video. If you can see and you’re in a hurry, you can vote without taking time to watch the video, too. I bet it’s cute, though!

Thank you.