Youth Bureau Sows Seeds for an Enriching Summer

The Glen Cove Youth Bureau has added horticulture to its flowerbed of activities for enriching the youth of the city this summer.

And on May 8, the fruits of its labor will be on display to parents and anyone who is curious to see what it has in bloom. Here is a Patch preview about what's ahead with the bureau: 

Agriculture

Children and staff have been cultivating the Glen Cove After 3 Community Garden since early spring. Right now, it is occupied mainly by flowers. How many and what varieties?  Too many to outline, according to .

Tsirkas, along with Jacki Yonick, the bureau's Summer Youth Employment Coordinator, are in charge of supervising the garden and its gardeners. There are about 10 students, bureau officials said, involved with this initiative. 

Tsirkas explained that the kids are beginning to plant vegetables, tomatoes and cucumbers, which will serve as a second, more elaborate educational component to the garden's overall edifying purpose, since it will incorporate harvesting and salesmanship. 

The tomatoes and cucumbers, whose seeds were started and nurtured indoors under the care of the students, will ultimately be sold at a farmers market in the downtown area of the city after they have ripened.

If they are successful, bureau representatives said, the children will learn the value of combining entrepreneurial endeavors with community engagement. In addition, they will acquire useful skills in their green-thumbs and knowledge of plant science. This is one of many efforts to mark on the calendar before the summer season hits in After 3's terrain.

The garden is located in Big Ralph Park on Wolfe Street. After 3 will be accepting donations at the May 8 viewing. No actual fruit will be on display, but some nice, healthy, juvenile vegetable plants are expected to be cultivated by this time. 

Internships

On Thursday, Yonick also held a meeting at the Youth Center to promote summer internships with non-profit organizations in the city. The internships will be available to a select number students, from ages 16-18, from the Ambassador Program. As interns, they will be paid with money from the same 21st Century grant that allots funds for After 3. 

Around 10-12 teens,  Tsirkas said, will be chosen through an application process based mostly on academic achievement. Training is set for May and June in order to prepare them for their stations in July and August.

Recruitment for 14-15 -year-olds in a separate employment program will run from May 1 to 15.

On May 25, Robert M. Finley Middle School students who have excelled in their employment curricula during the school year, will also present overviews of their success at the school's auditorium. 

For more information about the bureau, visit glencoveyouthbureau.com.