Mrs. Millie's Garden – help our children bloom where they are planted

This year, money raised through The Big Payback and other fundraising efforts will be used to create our outdoor natural play area for our new facility, the Louise Odom Childrenbs Center (currently under construction). Mrs. Millie’s Garden will feature different areas including a grassy play area with logs, stumps, and stepping stones to explore and conquer, flowering and shade trees to seek shade in solitude or share with friends, a paved area on which to pull a friend in a wagon or practice peddling a trike, and garden beds in which to dig and work. You can support this project by donating here: www.kdchild.orgB – but save your donation for MAY 5 – you can help us win extra prize money by donating on Nashville’s annual day of giving!

After nearly 50 years serving families in our community, we have found that many of our children have no safe place to play and ‘be children’ outside of King’s Daughters. It is critical that we empower our communitybs youngest citizens by acknowledging their capabilities and skills, develop strong self-image through expression and creativity, and nurture and encourage their natural curiosity.

One way to do this is by nurturing our childrenbs intrinsic love for learning through meaningful outdoor play.

Mrs. Millie’s Garden aims to base learning, both formal and play-based, on respecting the child and his/her true interests while exposing our children to materials and experiences they otherwise may not encounter. B We plan to provide a space that is open ended for our children – an environment where they can follow their own curiosity and challenge their physical abilities.B Cultivating a strong understanding of the world and its materials will foster a deep and strong foundation for mathematical concepts, communication skills, and developing a sense of, and place in, the larger community.

Objectives:

1. Increase learning opportunities and meaningful play through providing a wide variety of natural materials for children to explore
2. Increase opportunities to build vocabulary and real-world experiences (gravity, weather, life cycle, anatomy of plants, etc.)
3. Provide an environment that allows children to challenge and build their developing physical abilities (sitting, crawling, pinching, grabbing, walking, balancing, climbing etc.)

Project lead on construction of the natural play area to be Lone Oak FarmsB of Madison, Tennessee. They will provide materials and labor needed to install complete play area including:

• Picket fencing
• Benches
• Birdhouses
• Musical feature
• 3-4 flowering trees, 1 shade tree
• Tool shed for garden
• Storage shed for playground items
• Track area (concrete)
• Sod for grass play area, seeding for outside play area
• Logs, stumps, stepping stones,
• Arbor
• Brick walkways inside garden area
• Water pump
• Galvanized buckets and tubs
• Rabbit hutch
• Child-sized wagons
• Playsoft mulch
• Garden plants

We’re so excited to name this beautiful space in honor of one of our long time volunteers and supporters, Mrs. Millie Grammer. Won’t you join us in planting the seeds for this outdoor wonderland? Please donate today at: www.kdchild.orgB – or save your donation for MAY 5 – you can help us win extra prize money by donating on Nashville’s annual day of giving!!