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Seventeen families, two class-
rooms and more than 30 students
have worked for the past six
months to create the Romulus
Elementary School Community
Garden. The garden was funded by
a grant from the LEAGUE, a non-
profit school and web-based pro-
gram for service learning, and
many other donations from local
businesses and organizations.
Former third grade, now kinder-
garten, teacher at Romulus
Elementary, Molly McGlynn,
applied for the grant and spear-
headed the formation of the
CommunityGarden.
McGlynn, a Romulus resident,
has been working on the grant
since early 2011 and took a year
after being approved to gather the
initial families to participate in the
garden.
"It's all about the kids and the
community," McGlynn said. The
garden consists of 18 planting beds,
each 4 by 8 feet. The garden has
served as a teaching tool to a few of
the teachers at Romulus
Elementary, incorporating plant
life cycles and geometry into their
classroomcurriculum.
Student-farmer Kassandra
Kemp said, "We had to figure out
how far apart to put the planting
beds and measure out the walk-
ways."
Fourth-grade student Miguel
Bonam, who planted and cared for
his garden plot with his parents,
Sam and Leticia, said, "Gardening
is a nice way to relax and eat fresh
food."
In addition to the educational
value, the garden has also provided
plenty of produce for the farming
families, and enough to share.
Yvonne Kraft, a lunch-aide at the
school, was very active with the
CommunityGarden.
"The garden was really worth
while. I made my salads from my
crops," Kraft said.
Access to fresh and healthy pro-
duce was a goal for the first-year
Community Garden. With their
excess harvest, Community Garden
families donated fruits and vegeta-
bles to the Helping Hand food
pantry in Romulus and sold some
at the Romulus Farmers Market.
Enough produce was sold at the
market visits to pay formanure and
some plants for next season.
The Romulus Elementary
School Community Garden is just
one of the engagement activities
provided by the school. For more
information about the Community
Garden, call (734) 532-1450.
A
SSOCIATED
N
EWSPAPERS OF
M
ICHIGAN
P
AGE
5
November 1, 2012
R
OMULUS
Hundreds of area residents and
dozens of vendors took part in the
annual Health and Wellness Fair
Oct. 16 at the Romulus Senior
Center.
Director Rose Swidan said it
was the center's most successful
health fair to date.
“It was wonderful - very success-
ful,” said Swidan, who coordinates
the event for people of all ages
fromRomulus and other communi-
ties. “The seniors, especially, were
very happy with the useful and
helpful information they received.
We had two more vendors than last
year and they all seemed very
happy.”
The event featured services,
resources and information from a
variety of health and wellness-
related vendors - all under one
roof. Many of the offerings were
free.
Romulus resident Willora
Mahone received a flu shot from
Jaya James, the pharmacymanager
at the Kroger store in Canton
Township. Mahone said she had
planned to visit her doctor in Ann
Arbor for the shot, but when she
learned the service would be pro-
vided in her home town, “I decided
I might as well come here. It's clos-
er.”
Lois Gilstorff, the assistant
director of the City of Romulus
Human Resources Department,
received a visual inspection of her
ears from Ruth Klemens, hearing
care practitioner and outreach
coordinatorwithBeltone.
Gilstorff said it was interesting
towatch the results of the examina-
tion on Klemens' laptop computer
and she appreciated the informa-
tion from Klemens and other ven-
dors at thehealth fair.
“Everything went great,”
Klemens said. “I was able to talk to
a lot of people and share informa-
tion. Hopefully, people have a
greater understanding of why it's
important to have your hearing
tested regularly.”
Romulus resident Ron Ark
received a copy of Healthy Living
Magazine and other health and
wellness information from Iona
Marie Clark, the vision center man-
ager of Sam's Club in Canton
Township.
Louise Shelton, also of Romulus,
received information from a vari-
ety of vendors, including Soma
Sahu, pharmacy manager at the
Meijer store inBelleville. Sahu and
her associates discussed vaccines,
immunizations, the treatment of
shingles and medications such as
Metformin andLipitor.
“We know a lot of people go to
Meijer, so we thought it was very
important to participate in commu-
nity events,” Sahu said. “It went
verywell.”
Rachael Woldanski and William
Golden, who are licensedMedicare
agents with United Health Care,
spent much of their time answering
questions about Medicare and
Social Security and providing assis-
tance about Medicare's seven-week
enrollment period.
The two agents are regular visi-
tors to the Romulus Senior Center,
assisting seniors at least once a
month.
Joan Pallas, a senior from
Romulus, gained as much value
from the Health and Wellness Fair
as anyone. She received a flu shot,
had an eye test and gathered lots of
information.
“I think it's well worth the
effort,” Pallas said.
“All in all, it was very success-
ful,” Swidan said. “I want to thank
the vendors and thank everyone
who came and participated. It was
a very nice day.”
For more information on pro-
grams at the Romulus Senior
Center, call (734) 955-4120.
Students Brittany Gregory, Miguel Bonam, Kararia Banks, Jacob Hensley and Sanjeel Sunbal all enjoyed work-
ing on the Community Garden at Romulus Elementary School.
Willora Mahone of Romulus receives a flu shot from Jaya James, phar-
macy manager at the Kroger store in Canton Township. Mahone said she
had planned to visit her doctor in Ann Arbor for a flu shot, but decided to
visit the Romulus Senior Center once she heard flu shots would be avail-
able.
Health Expo draws crowd to senior center
Learning grows in gardens planted by students