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What a beautiful day! While the Earth Day Garden Build event was scheduled from 10am to 1pm, some of us labored from 8am to 3:30pm! Over 35 volunteers worked on transforming a space on Paul's campus overrun by crabgrass and weeds into an aesthetically pleasing pollinator garden.  Paul PCS' 6-9th graders, teachers, community and family members moved over 5000 lbs of soil, 2500 lbs of mulch, 2400 lbs of sand, 4,000 lbs of stone, and 50 plants into the space.  We were very lucky to receive generous snack donations from Revolution Foods and a lunch donation from Chipotle.  This build was made possible by City Blossoms who gave us a $2500 grant for this project.  Special thanks to Fabricio, Jayson, Maati, Ner, Steve, Cristian, Soukeina, Yami, Roxana, and Rosalie who also helped measure the space and create the build plan.  We will be continuing our work and adding some last touches to our garden spaces in the weeks that come.  Thanks for coming out everyone!


 
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Thanks to 11th and 12th grade environmental 
science students at Capital City for taking the time out of their day to give us a tour of their garden.  They were very well spoken and excited about the contribution they made to their school community through the funds provided by the City Blossoms program.  We are looking forward to our own garden build on April 20th!

 
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I couldn't be more proud of my 6th-9th grade students today as we braved the 93 degree heat to deliver hand written letters detailing our immigration stories to the "Gang of 8" senators working on the immigration reform.  We had the chance to speak with some of the senators' offices to share our stories orally as well.  This will not be the last time they are hearing from us! We have plans to create a video recording our stories, share a video we made earlier in the year with our own original photos and poetry detailing where we are from, and scheduling more meetings with the senators.
After our trip to the Capitol we participated in the Time is Now march on the National Mall.  It was inspiring to see so many people from around the country facing the heat in order to show their support for immigration reform.  We marched proudly, waving our brightly colored signs with slogans like, "Citizenship for 11 million," "Si, se puede," and "All in for citizenship." Estamos truly unidos!
Marching with us was Mexican artist Gloria Hidrogo who spoke with my students the day before the rally and led them in a tortilla art workshop.  Students painted images of a girl who had been separated from her family.  All of my students can relate to what it feels like to be torn apart from their culture, language, and families yet they make the best of their situation, work hard, and follow their dreams.  Hidrogo's status attracted two camera crews to our classroom and my students had another chance to tell their stories to local and national media and inspire a wider audience as they inspire me daily.

Check us out on TV:
Primer impacto

http://noticias.univision.com/primer-impacto/reportajes-de-impacto/video/2013-04-09/inmigracion-immigration-cambio-change-marcha-march-reforma-migratoria-immigration-reform?ftloc=channel1513:wcmWidgetUimStage&ftpos=channel1513:wcmWidgetUimStage:3
Univision Washington, DC

http://www.tvwfdc.com/2013/04/09/crearon-obras-de-arte-para-demostrar-su-apoyo-a-la-reforma/