Leadership Certificate and Saving Bond Given by Princeton Agriculture Association

In December, I was given a leadership certificate and saving bond by the Princeton Agricultural Association. I was invited for dinner with the Princeton Agricultural Association to receive an award for my club projects throughout the year.

http://mercer.njaes.rutgers.edu/4h/forum/NewsletterWinter2013.pdf

American Embassy magazine- American Youth: In on the Social Action » SPAN September/October 2012

Last year, Jane Malhotra, a freelance write for Span Magazine, published by the US Embassy in India contacted me about my activities on sustainability as she was writing an article on volunteerism in the United States.

A few months later she wrote an article about young Americans who spend many hours serving their community. My project was part of her article.  

The article: 

http://span.state.gov/sept-oct2012/eng/38-39-american-youth.html

Cherry Grove Farm Composting.

My next goal was to start composting in farms, so more of the community is involved. Further, people who live in condos and don't get to compost due to the restrictions can help the environment by donating their waste to the farm.
Here, the farm would collect the food waste and use its yard and animal waste and compost for the gardens in the farm; in case other people wanted to take the left-over compost.
I talked to the owner of Cherry Grove Farm, Mr Oliver, about setting up Community Composting at the arm and he graciously agreed.
Together, we were able to build a huge compost bin for the public, and the farm decided to advertise it on their website so people get awareness. At the same time, I informed neighbors and friends about this new program, and soon we had people going and putting their food waste into the compost bin.

I thank Cherry Grove Farm for allowing me to setup the bins for Community Composting at their farm - http://www.cherrygrovefarm.com/2012/08/community-composting-at-cherry-grove-farm/

Composting in Our Community!

My family and I first started composting in our backyard in October. We have really bad composting conditions in our backyard because we don't really have soil and we have a patio. As a result, when we first began, it was almost like indoor composting but it wasn't very efficient. Fortunately enough, a month or two later, our neighbor, Pooja Mehrotra, whose son, Raghav, is also part of the 4-H club, showed interest in composting and gave us the permission move the compost bin to her backyard. Our two families began composting together every week. Later, we found another family interested in composting; this family, the Nigams, daughter, Khushi Nigam, is also part of the 4-H club. Now, the three families compost together in the Mehrotra's backyard and we plan to meet every Sunday. Our goal, as a club, is to get more families involved in our little composting project, so we could preserve our environment on one step at a time, one person at a time; another family in our community is interested already!

Beyond My Gold Award!

After my the completion of the Gold Award, I decided that I did not want to drop the topic of composting just yet, so I started a 4-H club called, "Treasuring The Trash." As of now, we have three members in this club and our main focus to preserve the environment one step at a time, one person at a time. In this club, I figured "treasuring the trash" could be other stuff besides composting as well because people always have new ideas on what we can do with our trash to recycle it and ensure that it does not go to the landfills. Our club was started on November 18th, 2011 and we already competed on county level to do a presentation on our projects. I wish to continue being a 4-H member and sustaining the composting project beyond my High School years.

West Windsor Environmental Commission!

During my booths at the Farmers Market, I met Michael Hornsby from the Environmental Commission. We talked about the effects of composting and he invited me to attend one of their meetings. The meetings at the commission were really organized and they were very welcoming. We talked about Sustainable Jersey and how backyard composting could make West Windsor more sustainable. I attended a few of their meetings and took interest in their topics. While I was there, I met Rikki Massand, an editor for our local newspaper. Mr. Massand interviewed me and wrote a beautiful article  about my project in the newspaper! Being in the newspaper gave me a lot of confidence and made me feel as if I accomplished my goals of finishing my Gold Award and being a proud Girl Scout. Throughout this project, I learnt my strengths and weaknesses and a person and interacted with hundreds of people interest in the same field as me. I am glad I chose this project and went this far with it. Though my Gold Award requirements are done, I don't plan on stopping this project. I have carried this project to start a 4-H club called Treasuring The Trash! Recycling little things has become a part of my lifestyle and I will continue to do my part in preserving the Earth's beauty!

Montessori Field Trip!

After Inclusive Montessori adopted composting, they wanted to go and explore the farm and look at the organic way of nurturing animals and plants. The kids, who were about 2-4 years old enjoyed going to the farm and looking at the guys and goats. At first they were scared, but they got used to them pretty quickly. The day after the field trip, I went to the school and taught them about earthworms, a major ingredient in the composting composition. We took live worms and they enjoyed touching it and learning the important parts (head, tail, and clitellum). The next day, I went to the Montessori and educated them on composting with live examples and movies. They got to eat fruits and once they were done, they could throw it in the compost bin with some leaves. Working with kids was a really good experience and I am looking forward to doing it again with the Windsor Montessori.

Cherry Grove Farm!

While I was at the Farmers Market, a came across Stacey who works at the Cherry Grove Farm. The Farm is beautiful and has several events each year. Also, it is famous for its cheese! Stacey and I talked about composting and came up with an idea of having a booth at the farm one day. The first booth was very calm and not many people visited, but Nirit Yadin invited me to come to their cow parade which is one of the biggest events at the farm! I During the cow parade, many people visited my booth and the children were really excited  about drawing compost bins and winning sample compost after they took the qiuz! All in all, this was a great success and I had a lot of fun!

Princeton YMCA!

After building the bin at the Princeton YMCA, Amanda and I decided that it would be a great idea for me to come down next week and teach Composting to the kids attending the summer camp. This idea was very exciting to me as I love working with kids and dealing with things about composting. Teaching at YMCA gave me more confidence about my project. I took three sessions, according to age groups at the YMCA. All the kids starting at the age of 3 were extremely thrilled!

More Bins!

For my Gold Award, I had committed to making 10 bins. So after the first bin, I feverishly worked on getting more bins. The whole experience of working with people for a good cause changed my mindset on life and taught me a lot of things. I was never unwilling to go out and construct a new compost bin, it actually excited me when I found out someone was interested in starting composting.

2) My second bin was at the Princeton YMCA. Heidi, my mentor, directed me to the Amanda and together, we were able to construct a beautiful bin out of shipping pallets. When I got to the YMCA, Amanda had all the supplies ready we with a few volunteers, we were able to make the bin in less than 2 hours.

3) My third bin was for Annette Osterlund. Annette has been composting for years and knows many different things. In fact, she was very supportive throughout the project and I learned a lot of things from her. Annette built three bins out of shipping pallets in her yard to continue composting in an efficient way.

4) My fourth bin, which was an Earth Machine was for my neighbor, Pooja Mehrotra. Mrs. Mehrotra's son, Raghav came to me to learn about composting because he wanted to do it for a science fair. Raghav developed great interest in composting and convinced his mom to start composting with us. Mrs. Mehrotra wrote a great testimonial for my project:

" Dhara, An Inspiration For Young Children Helping The Environment Through Composting

Raghav, my 7-year-old son, was interested in composting. Dhara taught him all about composting—why it is important, how it helps the environment, what we can and cannot  compost, and how we can implement it at the household level.

Dhara, as a mentor, helped Raghav start composting everyday at home. Dhara’s role extended beyond starting the “composting habit.”

As a true leader, Dhara visits the compost bin in our backyard
once a week and checks out its contents with respect to green: brown ratio. She goes over the contents we have put in the compost bin and advises us on any queries that require clarification.

Dhara’s example has led the way for young children becoming more aware of how they, as responsible citizens, can help our environment with small steps every day. I am proud that my son, under Dhara’s guidance, has taken his first active steps as a true environment lover.

                                                                                                                               

Many thanks,

Pooja

(Raghav’s mother)"

5) My 5th bin, also an Earth Machine was for my other neighbor, Bhavna Nigam. Mrs. Nigam's daughter was motivated by Raghav and I and got the Nigams involved.

6) My sixth bin, again an Earth Machine was for a friend, the Rendlemans. Mr. and Mrs. Rendleman live in a neighborhood with barely any tress around. Despite this, they had the motivation to begin composting because they realized the benefits it has to our planet and how exciting it is.

7) My seventh bin, again an Earth Machine, is for the the Windsor Montessori. I contacted Yasmin Mumtaz, the owner and explained composting to her. She was engrossed by it and decided to make composting a part of the curriculum and bought an Earth Machine.

8) My eighth bin was for, Lubna, the owner of Inclusive Montessori. Mrs. Lubna, fascinated by the Windsor Montessori wanted her school to adopt composting and for her kids to learn about it. Thus, she asked me to begin composting and teach the kids all about it.

9) My ninth bin was for the Kedias. Mr. and Mrs. Kedia have a wonderful garden in their backyard and had also participated in the GroWW Garden Tour two years ago. I thought of asking them about composting because I am sure they spend excessive amounts of money on their fertilizer. Mr. Kedia was intrigued by this idea and a week later we arranged a compost bin together. His son, Vihaan was great help!

10) My last bin was for my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Mehta. Before my project, no one in my family knew about composting but now that it's coming to an end, composting has become a part of our lifestyle. Throughout this process, my parents, my sister, and I learnt a lot of things and now we value the Earth much more because it provides us with such a great environment and life.

First Bin!

My very first bin was made in July 2011, with my mentor, Heidi Fitchenbaum and my friends, Rahul Mehta, Karn Setya, and Ankitha Iyer. The first bin was made for Mireille Delman. She lives in West Windsor and is the owner of a huge farm. She has been wanting to compost for a really long time and was very excited to make the bin. She got all the materials before-hand except for the shipping pallets; she couldn’t find them and I was informed late night the day before we planned to make the bin. I woke up early in the morning and hunted for shipping pallets around the area. I came across a very nice lady, the owner of the Obal nursery; she was willing to give me her shipping pallets. Excited, I dropped the shipping pallets off at the Delman house. Unfortunately, the weather did not support us; we got rained out on. My friends and I waited till about 12:30 p.m. and readily contacted my mentor, Heidi Fichtenbaum, after it stopped raining. We decided to meet up at the Delmans house. Once we got there, we collected all the materials and checked see if they were the ones we needed. Unfortunately, it turned out that we picked up the wrong size pallets and my mentor had to go on a hunt for more pallets. Before leaving, she guided on where the bin should be and how we should level the bricks. Proceeding, my peers and I did the set-up of the bin by measuring the distance and leveling the blocks to a perfect modular size. When Heidi got back, we immediately started to build the bin. She taught us how to drill screws and hinges in to make the bin stable. We all took turns drilling and leveling the pallets. Though there was a lot of disruption and the weather did not support us, we had a great experience and the bin looked spectacular!