One of our great partner organizations here at Zealous Good is the St. Vincent de Paul Center in Chicago. One of SVDPC’s plans included a children’s butterfly garden, and we are proud to say we played a part in making this a reality!
Jennifer Blackwell, a primary leader of the project at SVDPC, says:
St. Vincent de Paul Center works with children from families of the working poor in a urban setting. It was the pre-kindergarten section’s goal this year to have the children learn more about butterflies. We want to put in a butterfly garden to help attract butterflies. We also wanted the children to learn about where food comes from. Because of our goal we put together a wish list. The opportunity of being linked up with a landscaping company through Zealous Good helped make our wish list for our container garden a reality. -Jennifer Blackwell, SVDPC
Our fantastic donor for this particular project was Liz Olsen at Avant-Gardenscapes landscaping company. Company founders Liz Olsen and Andrew Wolfgram are two artists using their creative background to model unique outdoor spaces. Avant-Gardenscapes is based out of Barrington, IL. I had the opportunity to follow up with Liz to get some feedback about the donation process. Avant-Gardenscapes got into contact with Brittany at Zealous Good through word of mouth, and discovered though our nonprofit wish lists that SVDPC was interested in landscaping supplies. Says Liz, this was the perfect match for Avant-Gardenscapes!
We are very excited to have made this successful matchup. Avant-Gardenscapes is a young company and this was their first time participating in the nonprofit sector. Says Liz about the process:
The whole process was really easy, [Zealous Good] pickup went smoothly. My favorite part was seeing the photos of the kids smiling, knowing they are excited to be outside and learning….It’s great to be a part of something bigger! -Liz Olsen, Avant-Gardenscapes
We think so too! The kids at SVDPC loved the butterfly garden. Says Jennifer:
Avant-Gardenscapes Landscaping is a very generous company. They not only gave us plants for the butterfly garden, but also planters, soil, and herb and vegetable plants. The children have been very excited and curious about the flowers growing and can’t wait to see what happened next with the tomato plants – will they still be green today or a different color. Because of the addition of these plants to our playground, our children have had an opportunity to slow down and talk about the changes they are seeing, smelling, touching, and tasting. -Jennifer
So there you have it. We are so excited here at Zealous Good about this perfect combination of donor and recipient. What a positive and meaningful experience! Thanks again to Liz Olsen and Avant-Gardenscapes for making this possible. Check out our nonprofit wish lists so you too can do good and feel good too! Or go straight to our donate page and donate!
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