We are happy to announce this year’s AIRE Youth Garden photo contest winner, Aaliah Gow and her family. We were able to provide seeds at an event at Enos Garcia Elementary where we were able to meet Aaliah and her family. They took a packet of our native seed in addition to many packets of other seeds we had donated for Family Night at the school. They had never tried a garden before and related the surprise in learning how big the plants get, how much vegetables they harvested, and how much they will have to think of spacing the crops next time. Here you can see a sample of pictures they submitted over cell phone. They also sent us many more pictures as proof and in pride of their harvest. They had carrots, zucchini, onions, jalapenos, green (purple) beans, tomatoes, and broccoli. I was impressed at the pictures I saw knowing that they had never tried a garden before.
We only received one entry for our photo contest this year so of course they win the first place prize of $50. We would like to thank Lenny Foster for volunteering to judge the photos. We did not have to follow through with his offer since there was only one entry. But in the two years that we have hosted this contest, I feel that this entry represents the essence of what we were trying to accomplish: to motivate young people and their families to try a garden with a little incentive…
Congratulations Aaliah and family!
Julie Mascarenas
I wanted to thank you Mr. Santistevan for the garden seeds it came out wonderful n was quite a experiance and looking forward to next year. God blessed u n ur family with such a tallent n has given you so much that you can now share lol. Thanks again