Four years ago, the Old Saybrook Women’s Club decided that they wanted to get more involved with the kids in town. The ladies had always shown their generosity by providing financial scholarships, but after learning about the 40 Developmental Assets, the women realized that building relationships with the kids was worth more than its weight in gold — and they decided to take action.
The Club applied and received one of HC•HY’s mini-grants and began working with some students to beautify the outside of the high school greenhouse. Their goal was to plant a narrow strip of flowers along the outside greenhouse, but by the time the project was done they had done much more than that.
The women enjoyed spending time with the kids so much that, after they finished with the outside of the greenhouse, they decided to create a more regular commitment to the students and the high school. They developed a wonderful relationship with a science teacher, Charlie Renshaw, as well as nearly half of the student body. They brought cookies and cakes, ate lunch with the kids once in a while, and were loved by all. With the extra hands and eyes, Mr. Renshaw was able to bring in students from the life skills program, some of whom had never had a science class in their lives.
The original science students began mentoring the life skills students and positive relationships developed everywhere. The women continued to help plant flowers with the students, who in turn started a small business aimed at keeping cut flowers on teacher’s desks. The money generated from the business was used to buy more supplies; all the students then worked together to start a poinsettia business and began planting terrariums and delivering them to homebound senior citizens. And it all began with a small act of reaching out by the Women’s Club.
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