Environmental Transformation

by | Aug 12, 2015 | Central School, Emerson Waldorf School, Environment, Green Elementary School, West End

“Children are born with a sense of wonder and an affinity for Nature.  Properly cultivated, these values can mature into ecological literacy, and eventually into sustainable patterns of living.”

Zenobia Barlow, “Confluence of Streams”

The Central School for Children, Durham, NC

This NC70 Leadership project created an outdoor learning area that included building ten picnic tables and six large planter boxes. The planter boxes were used for classes to grow flowers or vegetables. Each of the picnic tables had an engraved brass plaque with a motivational saying attached to the table.  Budget:  $12,500.  November 2004.

Emerson Waldorf School Farm, Chapel Hill, NC

This NC135 leadership project renovated and revitalized Emerson Farm at the Waldorf School. With generous donations from local and national businesses, the farm is now a beautiful place for children and the community to learn about and reconnect with nature. The project included reconstructing the school’s greenhouse and classroom, installing a greenhouse watering system, building a massive in ground irrigation system in the biodynamic garden, building a chicken coop and pen, installing a large rain water catchment system, and building moveable trellises for vine plants. Budget: 30,000. April 2012.

Green Elementary School, Raleigh, NC.

This NC73 WorldLegacy Leadership project transformed an outdoor area that had a severe drainage problem into a beautiful natural habitat garden. In the new butterfly garden, pond, and natural habitat, students would be able to learn first hand about the wonders of nature. April 2005.

Longview Alternative School, Raleigh, NC

NC45’s Leadership project created a musical greenhouse. landscaping, and storage shed. The musical greenhouse was designed to enable students to learn valuable life skills in the gentle care of plants. $32,000. April 2002.

Open House, Wilmington, NC

Open house is a halfway house for teenagers. NC28’s Leadership project refurbished and landscaped the playground and backyard including installing a privacy fence, sporting equipment, a basketball court, benches, a swing, a wishing well, and a fountain. The bell is to be tolled every time a teenager is freed from a troubling situation. February 2000.

Pathways Center, Greensboro, NC

This NC96 WorldLegacy Leadership project renovated the outdoor yard of Pathways Center, which is a housing program of Greensboro Urban Ministries. This center provides a safe, temporary environment for 16 families while they search for permanent housing and jobs. By installing a gazebo, plants, benches, toys, a covered shelter and a safety fence, the outdoor area, which was once barren, was transformed into an area where families can gather and play.  Budget: $30,000. November 2007.

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Commissioners Community Circle Award WorldLegacy

by | Aug 3, 2015 | Children, Environment, Family, Health, Press Release

Commissioners Community Circle Award WorldLegacy

Durham Board of County Commissioners August 24, 2009 Regular Session
Presentation of the Commissioners Community Circle Award
The Commissioners Community Circle Award was designed as a way to recognize county departments and community organizations and programs for the extraordinary services provided to Durham’s citizens.

Chairman Page acknowledged The WorldLegacy as an organization created to empower people by providing personal development and discovery support services. The center would be awarded the Commissioners Community Circle Award due to the numerous service projects in the Durham community.

Chairman Page made the following remarks:
“It is my pleasure to recognize the WorldLegacy as our fourth recipient of the
Commissioners Community Circle Award.

The Commissioners Community Circle Award enables the Durham Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to give special recognition to community organizations and county departments that have gone above and beyond to promote positive change in the Durham community.

This evening, the WorldLegacy, has been selected to receive this award, as they have exhibited excellence in the areas of productivity, creativity and commitment.

The WorldLegacy’s Leadership Program has contributed more than 27 pro bono projects in the Durham community. Among the many projects the WorldLegacy has made possible is their project to enhance the efficiency of the Family Center of Northern Durham, through a major community service project to build a children’s park.

This project included the delivery of services at no cost to the Family Center of Northern Durham. The WorldLegacy’s teams NC111 and NC110 enrolled local businesses and volunteers in the community to donate money, time and services with the projects — completing the children’s park within a weekend.
The made over children’s park includes many new additions such as a bike path and paint station.

In July, I had the opportunity to witness the WorldLegacy Leadership Program’s efforts first hand when I attended the children’s park ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Family Center of Northern Durham.

I was impressed by the sheer beauty of the children’s park. Children at the Family Center now have a colorful and exciting place to play and explore. The children’s park has also improved daycare services for the Family Center of Northern Durham’s clients.
WorldLegacy, the BOCC applauds your efforts to improve the lives of our citizens.
Representatives from the WorldLegacy join us tonight to receive the Commissioners Community Circle Award.

The WorldLegacy is at the heart of this award as you strive to improve and enhance our community. Our Board and your organization share the desire to make our community a better place to live. We say thank you and the WorldLegacy for your great work in our Community; Congratulations!”

The Commissioners celebrated the WorldLegacy for the successful project that was completed at the Family Center of Northern Durham. The WorldLegacy’s efforts helped to transform a simple backyard into a colorful children’s park that drastically improved daycare services for the Family Center of Northern Durham’s clients. The Board saluted the WorldLegacy for the efforts to provide positive change in the lives of Durham County Citizens.

Dr. Rob Katz, WorldLegacy Director, accepted the Community Circle Award from the Board. He stated that the center’s passion is to rekindle people’s passion for life. He continued to express gratitude for the award.

Chairman Page thanked Dr. Katz for his services to the community.

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Bragg Street Park WorldLegacy Leadership

by | Aug 1, 2015 | Bragg Street Park, Environment, Family

Bragg Street Park

This project transformed what was basically a desolate piece of land into a beautiful neighborhood park.  The project included extensive landscaping, installation of a playground, and a sitting area.  Budget:  $39,000.  April 2002.  NC46.

All the help we can get

June 17, 2002
By RUTH SHEEHAN, Staff Writer
Today, the community unveils a tiny park with an enormous heart.
After months of elbow grease and door-to-door dollar-collecting, a group of generous do-gooders is ready to show off the new Bragg Street Mini Park. Formerly one of the most forlorn, drug-addled corners of Raleigh, it is now a cheerful, well-equipped gathering place for everyone from toddlers to adults.
Getting the park renovated and retooled has been a journey.

It has brought together all sorts of local, and not-so-local, interests, from the park’s immediate neighbors to the organizations near and far that have contributed time and money.

Even the City of Raleigh has chipped in manpower and expertise. Not to mention the tent and podium lent by the city for today’s made-for-TV grand re-opening. The mayor and others are scheduled to speak.

Still, for all the hard work and collaboration, the Bragg Street project remains $10,000 shy of its $26,000 price tag, not counting in-kind contributions.

What troubles me is that the city of Raleigh’s cash contribution to the cause totals $0.

Not that the organizers and renovators are complaining. They express their gratitude to the city at every opportunity.

Donna Kidder, who is part of the Morrisville-based that headed up the project, practically gushed when she described how the city generously gave its permission for the renovations to occur.  Generous indeed, until you remember that Bragg Street Mini Park happens to be part of the city’s own park system, not some vacant and abandoned lot.

Folks who live near the minipark tell me they have been begging the city for improvements there for as long as they can remember.  “The neighbors have been asking for attention to that park for years,” said Bruce Lightner, who lives three blocks away.  But the minipark, located on the city’s most infamous street, was not a priority.

It’s not that the park was left a dump. The city always kept it passably clean.  But there on the end of Bragg Street, the so-called drug element was spending far more time than the children the park was created for.  There was a lot more doping than jump-roping. A lot more hanging out than hanging on the monkey bars.

At the Raleigh City Council’s June 4 meeting, volunteers reported on the extraordinary volunteer effort transforming the park and asked the city for whatever financial help it could provide.

Wayne Schindler, Raleigh superintendent of parks, is also expected to ask the city to pay for a high fence at the back side of the park so that drug dealers will no longer have an easy way to elude police.

Kidder hopes the city will come through with at least some small sum.

Even in these tight budget times, that only seems right. Purely as a symbolic gesture, if nothing else. We’ve heard a lot of big political talk in recent years about the importance of Southeast Raleigh.

Here’s a chance for the city to put some pennies where its podium is.

If you want to help, send checks payable to Passage Home (write Bragg Street Mini Park on memo line), P.O. Box 17588, Raleigh, N.C. 27619.

Reprinted with Permission of The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Volunteers reclaim park

Bragg Street neighbors say it has been a haven for crime

Sunday, May 26, 2002
By MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE, Staff Writer

RALEIGH – A quiet revolution was under way at Bragg Street Mini-Park Saturday. In the shade of two towering pecan trees, children from one of the poorest corners of Southeast Raleigh joined volunteers refurbishing basketball courts, swing sets and picnic tables.
Like the surrounding neighborhood, the little park at the corner of Bragg and South Person streets had fallen on hard times. Neighbors said adults populated park benches and stayed late into the night, shouting and cursing. Drug dealers fleeing police used it as an escape route, running past the swing sets to hop a rear fence and hide in adjacent yards. Those who called police, including longtime neighbor Cuetonus Moore, were told park users could stay until 11 p.m.

“My bedroom is right there and I couldn’t do anything,” said Moore, 32, of 1112 S. Person St. She brought her 4-year-old son Amis next door to explore park improvements Saturday morning.
Jenise R. Jeffries, 11, stood nearby, writing name tags for volunteers. She also lives on Person Street and relied on the park for pick-up basketball, kickball and dodge ball games. She felt safe there. Crossing the street was the problem.

Organizers of the clean-up say the area around Bragg Street has perhaps the highest concentration of vacant homes in Wake County. Jeffries does not notice the empty houses so much as the activity outside of them. One day she said she looked outside and saw a green car drive by, spewing bullets. She ran outside.

“Children were actually outside playing. I saw bullets lying by my Dad’s truck,” she said, “I’m just trying to hang in because my friends are here.”

The government has stepped in to fix some of the underlying problems near the park. The Weed and Seed program, a federal and local partnership, is paying for renovations to some vacant houses. Capital area police added patrols, and now enforce a dawn-to-dusk schedule, Moore said. Passage Home, a housing and family development agency, pitched in. Fulfilled Promise Tabernacle Church on Bledsoe Street and Weed and Seed both arranged for volunteers to help at the park Saturday.

But most of the organizing and fund-raising for the $25,000 renovation job was done by volunteers from WorldLegacy, a Morrisville-based company that runs adult leadership courses. About a dozen participants showed up Saturday for their second weekend of work, laying bricks and shoveling sand. Among them was Donna Kidder, 48, who had first suggested the park as an opportunity for classmates to test their leadership skills.
Although she lives in North Raleigh, Kidder is tied to the area: Her daughter began serving a 26-month sentence last fall at the N.C. Correctional Institution for Women at the end of Bragg Street. Just about every week she comes to visit.

At first she kept the windows rolled up and a bottle of mace within reach. Then, as the park project evolved this spring, she started walking around. On Saturday, she showed up after visiting hours wearing shorts, a tank top and baseball hat, milling happily with the crowd of volunteers and children.
Money for construction materials came from personal donations and area businesses, she said. Private donors were given gladiola bulbs in return for their investment — Kidder alone has already given away about 150. They must raise $14,000 more before the park is paid for.
Organizers plan to ask City Council members at their June 17 meeting for extra money to offset the cost of the plastic and metal jungle gym equipment. And other improvements could still be made: a fence between the basketball courts and picnic area, for instance, and a higher rear fence to deter fleeing felons.

“It’s been a rough area for a little while,” said Moore, who has lived in the house she owns for about 10 years, “Hopefully, we can work together and it will get better.”

Reprinted with Permission of The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina.

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WorldLegacy Ashevillage Institute

by | Jul 9, 2015 | Ashevillage Institute, Environment | 5 comments

Ashevillage Institute in Asheville, NC.

NC120 did an extreme makeover project at Ashevillage Institute in Asheville, NC. An observation deck was built that was 25 ft long x 6ft wide. The deck was constructed from locally harvested black locust lumber. A ~20 ft long x 2 ½ ft wide x 4” deep cement bench was constructed at the bottom of an unfinished retaining wall, which supported the hydro-channel of the rainwater catchment system. An extensive edible arbor and trellis was constructed at the entrance to the backyard. One archway was built over the first step leading up into the yard and was 10ft wide x 8 ft high. A second archway was built to the left of the side door. A 40 foot trellis lead up the yard alongside a brick walkway to another 5 foot wide x 8 foot high archway at the top of the steps. The arbor was constructed from locally harvested black locust wood. An eighth of an acre of the property was covered with over 200 densely abundant, productive, edible, and bio-diverse plants. The landscape integrated a variety of medicinal and edible plants with multiple functions (i.e., nitrogen fixers, dynamic accumulators, and beneficial insect habitat). Clearing, soil amending, plant delivery and placement was part of the project. Utilizing scrap wood and other materials, the team constructed five birdhouses and installed them throughout the property. These birdhouses provided habitat and has added to the beauty and character to the property.

Backyard Solutions for a Sustainable Future

We believe that the cycle of environmental degradation on our planet will be reversed when people feel loved and know that they are truly free. This begins in our local communities where circles of connection between humans, their resources, and the whole web of life are understood and strong. We are committed to building a groundbreaking model for backyard sustainability that will demonstrate the interconnection of all life and teach people creative ways to sustain their families and communities using methods that support a healthy, vibrant, and constantly renewing planet. Not only will the community surrounding the project have access to a beautiful outdoor sanctuary where abundant food and water is produced but people from all over will be able to utilize this “living laboratory” as a way to learn how to bring it home to their neighborhoods.

Imagine doing an extraordinary project in your community that could shift the future of our planet. Here’s the catch. . .it has to be organized in two weeks and implemented in only two days, all of the materials donated, and all of the labor volunteer. Everyone says it is impossible.
On August 2nd & 3rd a group of intrepid leaders from WorldLegacy NC120 Leadership came together to build an extraordinary service
project in the domain of the environment. We joined our voices in response to the question of how can we make the biggest difference for
our suffering planet. We found the Ashevillage Institute, an eco-urban learning center whose mission is to spread awareness about sustainable living solutions through education, demonstration and action.

Our WorldLegacy Leadership Team specifically designed the “Bring It Home Project” to address ways in which ordinary citizens can make a difference in their own backyards through implementing a complex permaculture-inspired design at the organization’s site in Asheville, NC. This included building a complex entryway arbor/trellis system, installing a 40 ft. concrete bench to frame the outdoor classroom space, constructing a 30ft deck over one of the ponds on the property, and installing over 300 herbal/medicinal plants according to the organization’s highly specific landscape design.

This extreme giver project was not only successful but went way beyond what our WorldLegacy NC120 Leadership Team originally envisioned. We raised thousands of dollars in donations and supplies and created a team of almost 70 volunteers for the two days of the project. At the ribbon cutting ceremony, our team stood proud, knowing that we modeled the profound difference a small group of intentional individuals can make to create a tremendous impact on our planet.

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SEEDS Helps Unused Land in Durham

by | Jun 1, 2015 | Article, Environment, SEEDS

SEEDS – Southeastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces, Durham, NC

SEEDS is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help neighborhoods create sustainable green spaces. This WorldLegacy NC55 Leadership project planted 100 rose bushes and other plants, installed compost bins, a 75-foot privacy fence, a clay oven, bluebird houses, and painted murals. Budget: $15,000. June 2003.

SEEDS helps plant changes for unused land in Durham

Author: AL CARSON acarson@heraldsun.com
June 1, 2003

When Sarah Gibbs talks about “Food Alley,” she is not referring to a food court in one of Durham’s shopping malls.

Her idea is a narrow strip of mixed-use land in the middle of a large demonstration garden in East Durham.

“This is really starting to be permaculture,” said the executive director of SEEDS, located at 706 Gilbert St., a block north of intersection of Holloway and Elizabeth streets.

As Gibbs showed off her plants, a group of small children from a local daycare center trooped into the compound, “the Edgemont kids,” she said. “These are the most adorable children. They are painfully cute. They come here about once a week.”

While the children weeded their plot, Gibbs continued the guided tour of the garden, which includes many edible plants and flowers mixed in for pollination.

Peach trees, Filberts (nuts), pears, lemon balm, potatoes, strawberries, elderberries, blueberries, cranberries, paw-paws and thyme are growing in the alley.

Elsewhere tomatoes, sweet peas, squash and other vegetables flourish. One small plot is dedicated to herbs — thyme, oregano, pineapple sage, chives, cilantro, tarragon, dill and fennel.

South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces Inc., or SEEDS, was started in 1994 as a program to help turn vacant, abandoned lots into productive green spaces.

“What we’re working towards right now, is to continue to enhance it so that it is a Triangle-wide demonstration garden that will be known statewide,” Gibbs said of the project that also has educational purposes.

The organization, which owns some of its land and uses other tracts on loan to it, is supported mainly by individual donations and grants, with a small and dwindling portion of its funds coming from the city as budget times continue to be lean.

That’s why volunteers have become even more important to the organization that has been around nearly nine years. And Gibbs’ job is to get more people involved in volunteering with SEEDS. While donations of money are welcomed, there are other ways to help out.

“The best thing is for people to come and find out what we’re doing and if it’s something that matches their excitement, then we can help them figure out a way to get involved,” Gibbs said.

That could include donations of time, working with the board or working hands-on in the gardens, with the children. That is what happened recently for Betsy Barton and some of her friends.

“They just took us by storm,” Gibbs said of the Legacy volunteers. “They are a very motivated, really wonderful group of folks. They pull all the resources together and really focus on what they are doing.”

“The WorldLegacy is an organization in Morrisville that does leadership training, and we’re a group of people who all went through the training,” said Barton. “Part of what we do is pick a volunteer project and make amazing things happen in very short periods of time.”

The amazing things this group accomplished in five weeks were to raise $5,000, get Dickerson Fencing to erect a fence along Elizabeth Street, build a privacy wall on the south side of the garden and plant 100 roses donated by Home Depot.

“What we’re doing now is walking around the neighborhood and seeing if people around here would like a rose in their yard,” Barton said.

“We picked SEEDS because our group decided that we wanted to make to make a difference somewhere in the realm of children,” Barton said.

Jason Balius of The Mad Hatter Bakery has been a staunch supporter of SEEDS, buying fresh produce from the gardens for his restaurant. Volunteers also sell produce, herbs, plants and flowers at the Durham Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings.

The SEEDS campus is made up of several different plots, with a demonstration garden where people from the neighborhood come in and grow things. Across Gilbert Street is “the big garden” where they raise organic vegetables to sell — leaf lettuce, onions and other fresh produce.

“It’s real organic produce that teens from the community take to the market and sell and they also learn business skills,” said Will Ammons, a landscaper who is also with the WorldLegacy group.

Ammons has been “reaching out to the community,” as well as helping plant the roses and putting up the privacy fence, which protects the garden from pit bulls on the other side.

“We’re just outsiders, from all walks of life, who came in and raised a lot of money,” said Barton. “We came in and asked them, ‘What do you want?’ They created a wish list, and we negotiated and we said okay. They said it would be nice if we had a better fence, because people jump it at night and leave hypodermic needles in the garden.”

Dana Messick, a UNC student from Columbus, Ohio, began volunteering as part of a project through a class in the environmental studies department. She and a friend were weeding a bed of spring onions recently when they were asked about their volunteer work.

“I started coming out here in August once a week for a couple of hours and working with the DIG program, which is the Durham Inner-City Gardeners program,” she said. “Then the class ended in December, but I really liked it, so I’ve kept coming out and this semester Amanda has come with me.”

Amanda Harlow, a high school classmate of Messick’s, decided to join her friend in the work.

“It sounded like an interesting program and something good to do on Saturday mornings, get out of bed and get moving before noon and spend some time outside,” he said. “It’s good to be outside and be in the dirt and get away from Chapel Hill for a while.”

Precious Clemmons, a 10-year-old neighbor, was helping with the garden.

“I’ve been working,” she said. “I’ve been planting roses, three roses.”

Precious said she heard about the project when her brother came to an open house at the garden. Her favorite thing was planting the roses and she planted her rosebush Nicole.

“They all named their rose buses,” Barton said. “We taught them how to dig the hole and plant the bush and they felt like, ‘This is mine,'” she explained with a laugh. “So they named them.”

Gibbs sometimes hangs out with Precious and her friends from the neighborhood, working with them.

“For me, that is the real opportunity, when there are kids that have an interest and a desire to learn to grow things,” she said. “It’s their neighborhood and its great to help them get involved.”

While some of the workers are volunteers, some get paid, as does Chris Lyons, 17, a junior at Hillside in his third year with DIG.

“I heard about the job in class one day and I applied for the job.”

“It was originally started as a youth program, but we have some older folks, in the 18 to 21 age range,” Gibbs said. “We work with up to 10 right now, but we eventually want to expand that and have more educational opportunities.”

Those numbers are just with the DIG program. School groups often come in for an afternoon learning and working.

Over the years Lyons has grown more than plants. He has grown pride.

“We’ve done a lot with this land,” said Lyons, who is interested in studying computer programming and landscaping when he gets out of high school. “You can look at it and say, “It ain’t nobody else’s. That is ours.”

The SEEDS garden is open for viewing daily. There will be a SEEDS Community Garden Outdoor Arts Festival: Art Grows in Durham, from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, which includes a silent auction, music, a puppet show and more.

Reprinted from The Herald-Sun, (Durham, NC)

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Greenway Rejuvenated

by | Mar 14, 2015 | Article, Environment, Greenway, greenwayarticle

Walnut Creek Greenway Park

This WorldLegacy Leadership project involved a significant enhancement of a section of the Greenway System that predominantly served a low-income section of the city. The project included: designing and fabricating bird and duck houses, adding native plants, a butterfly garden, benches, and creating identification markers and trail maps.  March 2001. NC36. A second project renovated a quarter mile section of the Greenway and planted over 122 trees and plants. February 2004. NC63.

Greenway Rejuvenated

LORENZO PEREZ; STAFF WRITER
March 14, 2001

RALEIGH — Before they built the birdhouses and planted the butterfly bushes and dogwoods, the volunteers had to clear the bald tires, stained mattresses and beer bottles out of the swamp.

People still use the Walnut Creek wetland area as a dumping ground, but at least one small stretch across from Carnage Middle School may now lure more than late-night litterers.

About 50 people came Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the restoration of the the Walnut Creek Greenway Trail and walk the immaculate path.

Working with city officials, students and a local group of environmental activists, participants in a WorldLegacy leadership program cleaned up and restored a quarter-mile stretch of city greenway that cuts through the Walnut Creek wetland area.

The WorldLegacy, a Chapel Hill company offering adult-education and leadership programs, requires participants to complete service projects benefiting the community.

“When we came out the first day, it was overwhelming,” said Courtney Carlson, a 28-year-old occupational therapist and member of the WorldLegacy project team. “There was a lot of work to do, but we pulled together.”

Beginning in early January, volunteers began clearing out the junk clogging the nearby stream. Each weekend, work crews grew larger. Children from the surrounding neighborhood pitched in, digging holes, planting trees and clearing trash.

One weekend, more than 70 people came out to help, the WorldLegacy said.

The project was made possible by donations totaling $10,000 from area businesses as well as in-kind support from the government.

WorldLegacy volunteers also collaborated with Partners for Environmental Justice, a citizens group that began cleaning up the wetland area more than five years ago.

Eventually, Partners for Environmental Justice wants to convert close to 150 acres of the wooded, swampy area into an educational park and bog garden. The ambitious project comes at an estimated price of $10 million, and the group hopes the city would help pay.

The city owns a large piece of the wetland south of Walnut Creek between State Street and Garner Road. Other patches belong to the state, the federal government and private owners.

“This is the first segment of what this dream means to us,” said Norman Camp, co-chairman of Partners for Environmental Justice. “There is now in Southeast Raleigh a place for children and seniors, young and old alike to commune with nature.”

Walking along the greenway with Ed Milligan, Partners for Environmental Justice’s other co-chairman, Camp said their group hopes to restore the entire wetland area over the next 10 years.

At that point, a small plastic bag fluttered across the greenway, and Milligan stooped to pick it up.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “it’s always a constant battle.”

Reprinted with Permission of The News & Observer of Raleigh,

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