The garden is a place to grow a sense of community, expand our circle of friends, create better physical and mental health, reduce stress, and be a healthy example for our children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren. The garden also provides nutritional benefits from the freshly grown organic vegetables.

On July 24, twenty-four youth from 10 months to 14 years of age arrived to paint the benches and stones that adorn the garden. Paintbrushes in had, each youth found that special rock to display their talents. Even some of the adults joined in the fun and allowed their creative juices to unfold before their very eyes.  It was a day of summertime fun for all involved.

We also have a summer series taking place at the garden on Thursday evenings from 7-8pm and all ages are welcome. See you at the garden! Contact Mandie Reed 632-4728 or Lea 632-4345 for more information.

Come and join us at the Harlowton  Community Garden, Thursday, July 10 at 7:15 pm to enjoy the fruits of the garden and your labor.

Wheatland Memorial Hospital, Harlowton Schools and Central Montana Head Start are working on a plan to bring Head Start to Wheatland County.  The group is working diligently for a fall 2008 enrollment.  Hillcrest Elementary is working on finding a space, Wheatland Memorial Healthcare is working to provide the healthcare needs and Head Start will provide the teacher for the preschool.  Together we can make sure that all the preschool age children in Wheatland County have access to preschool and get off on the best foot!

Head Start is a comprehensive child development program that has served low-income families since 1965.  These child-focused programs serve children birth to 5 years of age, pregnant women, and their families with the goal of increasing school readiness of children from low-income families.  Head Start provides a range of individualized services in the areas of education and early childhood development; medical, dental, and mental health; nutrition; and parent involvement which are responsive and appropriate to each child’s and family’s developmental, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage and experience. 

The two youth will participate in networking and educational opportunities.  The youth track is centered around developing and maintaining youth run programs to help reduce underage drinking.  The youth are given assignments and topics to speak on.  The program assists in developing youth in the areas of public speaking and leadership.  This aids a community by providing training to already strong youth in successful ways of implementing programs.  The first youth networking event will be on Wednesday, August 20^th, this event will introduce the youth participants to what is expected of them, how the conference is organized and a general social event.  Over the next three days, the youth will be kept busy from nine-o’clock in the morning until nine-o’clock at night.  The information that is crammed into these days can help leaders of tomorrow, be leaders today.

The youth were asked to keep a chart of activities and the number of hours of exercise they completed on a weekly basis for the 2-month program. The structure and execution of the compilation of charting failed, yet the youth were enthusiastic about all activities they now labeled as exercise and came to understand the concept related to good health.

Bringing the program to a successful ending evolved through a conversation with a brother and sister(ages 8 & 10), who thought having a “Bicycle Rally” would be a wonderful event! Judith Gap youth were unable to attend due to the mileage distance. The rally took place Saturday, May 17 at the Youth Center with 26 youth participating and 9 adults volunteering to accompany the youth on their ride to Chief Joseph’s Park on their bicycles, scooters, tricycles or anything with wheels. The event involved decorating individual bicycles with streamers, ribbons, pipe cleaners, playing cards for sound effects, etc., a bicycle safety course instructed by the Harlowton Sheriff’s Department, a safe bike route from the Youth Center to Chief Joseph’s Park with volunteers not normally involved providing supervision, and a healthy snack consisting of a wide variety of fresh vegetables and fruit and clean water. The healthy snack was a huge success enjoyed by all the youth and volunteers!

Through partnering with Hillcrest Elementary, Partnership For Youth, AmeriCorps Vista, and Horizons, Wheatland County Fit Kids program ended on a positive and successful note. Youth are continuing to ask if we are going to do “Fit Kids” when school begins. My answer is alway YES!!! Charting results of physical activity is in the revision stages for Fall 2008.

Through use of the local newspaper, word of mouth, posters on community bulletin boards, windows of local businesses and fliers distributed within neighborhoods, word is spreading about the Harlowton’s Community Garden. There will be weekly activities revolving around the garden throughout the summer, starting on Thursday, July 10 at 7:15pm. The theme of the first activity will be rhubarb,  involving an educational piece on the dangers of ingesting the leaf, what rhubarb tastes like fresh from the garden and a number of ways to prepare rhubarb. A sampling of prepared recipes will be enjoyed by all that attend.

Groups and individuals have come forward to participate in the growth of the garden, such as H.A.P.Y. (Harlowton Advantage Program for Youth) who came to plant the garden with over 40 youth in attendance. Some of these children had never worked in a garden. Questions arise as the children see me in their neighborhoods; “are the plants growing yet?” or “when can we eat the tomatoes?” The concept of food growing out of the ground is new to many of Harlowton’s youth.

Senior citizens are enjoying participating in the community garden with such comments as: “we have moved to a home that has no space for a garden”, “we enjoy being outdoors and being useful” or something as simple as, “what a wonderful idea”.

Volunteers have come forward from all walks of life represented in Harlowton, especially those who have never volunteered before. I imagine the list of helpers will continue to grow as does the needs and care of the garden.

The garden is built around the idea of growing a community and what better place to grow a community than around a garden.

Please join in making Harlowton’s Community Garden a place where community grows together and learns!

Classes are available, free, to anyone in the community and meet on a weekly basis, Tuesday evenings, 5:30-6:30pm at Hillcrest Elementary. With all the busy schedules of summertime, classes will resume when schools are back in session mid-August.

Laughing Yoga is something anyone can do!!! There are no age barriers, no socio-economic barriers, no barriers period. The only requirement is the ability to laugh. Classes have a contagious element and bring you back wanting more of that calm and peaceful sensation. Tools that enable us to relieve stresses from our everyday lives helps to create a more peaceful home life, interactions with others can begin with a smile and a sense of wellness is just a laugh away.

Please join in and bring a friend or two for Laughing Yoga classes with Adrie Min.