NEWS ADVISORY (Release No. 03-11)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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April 22, 2011
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Contact: Tyrone Jue (415) 554-3247
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City Celebrates Earth Day with Public Unveiling of New Chinatown Living Library & Think Park
Public school demonstration project promotes hands-on, interdisciplinary learning about sustainable water, native plants, growing food, with new gardens and eco-art
WHAT: S.F. Board of Supervisors President Supervisor David Chiu, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Life Frames, Inc., students and community leaders celebrate Earth Day with the public unveiling of the new Chinatown Living Library & Think Park Rainwater Harvesting Cisterns/Gardens/Mural at Gordon J. Lau Elementary School.
The new features in the Chinatown Living Library & Think Park include two elaborate demonstrations of rainwater harvesting with 11 cisterns and other rainwater conservation methods, Native California Riparian and Native Drought Tolerant Gardens, a Fruit, Flower & Vegetable Garden, as well as a mural that describes the installation in three languages: Chinese, English, and Spanish.
Speakers will also announce a sister demonstration project in New York City’s Chinatown.
WHO: David Chiu, President, S.F. Board of Supervisors
Michael Carlin, Deputy General Manager, SFPUC
Bonnie Ora Sherk, Founder, Life Frames, Inc. & A Living Library
Jill Wynns, San Francisco Board of Education
WHEN: Friday, April 22, 2011 from 11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
WHERE: Gordon Lau Elementary School at 950 Clay Street, San Francisco
Lower Yard, Entrance at Washington Street side (between Stockton & Powell)
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Spring Garden News from our Chinatown Living Library & Think Park
By Celine Laubsch, Chinatown A.L.L. Instructor
At last, sunny days are here! Birds are singing, bees are buzzing, and the flowers are bursting with color! Our gardens are looking lush and green, thanks to all the hard work that our students have been doing all fall and spring. Students have been busy learning about sprouting seeds, making healthy soil, laying stepping stones, building fences, painting signs, watering, drawing, and appreciating our garden friends- the earthworms, ladybugs, roly poly bugs and butterflies.
We have a wonderful new accomplishment to celebrate! We are now able to harvest rainwater to use in the gardens during the dry months with our new Rainwater Collection System. The newly planted Riparian California native plant zone (for water loving plants) drinks some of the water harvested, and the rest is stored in a new Redwood Bench in the GJL lower yard. On the wall is a beautiful mural of the blue sky that explains the Rainwater Harvesting Demonstrations in poetic and mathematical prose in three languages (Chinese, Spanish, and English)!
As summer approaches, students have been making lemonade with fresh mint from the garden, and enjoying colorful garden salads of lettuces, mustard greens, fava greens and beans, and edible flowers like calendula, roses, and nasturtiums.
We are watching the first mulberries and baby fruits appear in the fruit orchard, the purple cabbage growing fat, and busily planting lots of yummy vegetables for the summer such as the 3 sisters (corn, beans, and squash), giant sunflowers, cherry tomatoes, and more…
Come visit and enjoy the garden with us! A Living Library (A.L.L.) classes take place every Tuesday and Friday in the playground yards. A.L.L. welcomes parents and community members to get involved.
