This past weekend the Gather and Grow team attended Phoenix’s Nature Fest as a community partner. Nature Fest was put on by the City of Phoenix in order to celebrate Urban Wildlife Conservation Day, as well as our local community within the valley. Nature Fest featured a variety of special activities for both children and families, in addition to the 42 other community partners who set up tables to share information and activities in relation to their organizations. Nature Fest also featured specific event activities for children and families. For example, nature drawings, a nature photography walk, and demonstrations with live animals and reptiles.

The Gather and Grow team set up our classic tabling activity of pot decoration and planting of the Brown Tepary Bean, which is native to Arizona. The team was excited to participate at this year’s Nature Fest and enjoyed seeing how much the children and their families enjoyed our planting activity. Allowing the children to be creative and decorate their own pots, as well as working with their hands in order to plant their very own bean, provides a positive and memorable learning experience for both them and their families. Throughout the event, we had about 200 children and families visit the Gather and Grow station! We always love the opportunity to share more about our organization’s mission and work with the parents, and see how excited they are for their children to participate in our bean planting activity. Some parents worked together with their children and some even decided to plant their own beans as well! It is so nice to see community members of all ages enjoying the experience of being creative and planting something of their own to take home.

We truly appreciate and enjoyed the experience of participating in this year’s Nature Fest and we look forward to continuing our engagement with our local Phoenix community in future events to come!