Earlier today, Republic FC staff and community members put a pause on their daily tasks and chose to exercise their green thumbs for the day to celebrate Juneteenth. The team started their morning at the New Joseph Bonnheim Community Charter School energetically anticipating the tasks ahead, which included building mobile garden boxes, refreshing the school garden space, refinishing school benches and overall beautification of the school.
The club worked with the Center for Fathers and Families, a non-profit organization — and one of Republic FC’s partner community groups – to celebrate its annual day of service tradition. The program at New Joseph Bonnheim serves 1,100 low income children and families by providing mentoring, education, and enrichment activities. NJB Charter School is one of their priority sites where they want to renovate their garden program to teach young students how to garden, grow, and give back to their community.
Melissa Hernandez, a specialist with the Center for Fathers and Families stated that, “The school is so big and our projects are so ambitious that we need extra hands to come help us get some of these projects started.”
The mission of NJB is to develop responsible, respectful, and proactive citizens, and idea which is centered on agriculture and on the community it serves. As Kevin Burdick, Republic FC’s Director of Community Investment shared after the event, “We did a year’s worth of work in about four hours, so that’s really special, and to give our teammates the chance to learn about a community out here that they don’t necessarily go to every day, it’s really important.”
