First of all, when I applied to the Neighbourhood Small Grant, I had in mind a project for little kids where the idea was to teach children about why to take care of our environment, flowers, trees, and water and what to do with our garbage because our future is on our children’s hands. However, when I started sharing my event, all families interested were Spanish speakers, so I had to adjust the invitation accordingly so that children didn’t feel isolated by the language. So I had 20 children and 28 parents attending my event, for a total of 48 attendees, all Spanish speakers.
In the beginning, I was not sure about the actual cost of the birdhouses, or that the food was going to be so expensive, so I went well above my budget, not including the trips that my husband and one of my friends did with me to buy the stuff. Also, the birdhouses were not available in one place, so my advice is that people should check first the availability of the items and where to buy them before applying or budgeting for their projects.
For outdoor projects, we can not trust the weather. Even though my project was during the summer, I had to change the date of my project due to the rain. I went to buy birdhouses in 5 different places because I couldn’t find them in just one or two stores. On the date of the event, I had several cancellations because children were sick, and even some days before, too, but I already had bought everything except the beverages. In the end, I only had half of the children registered, and some of them were siblings.
Nevertheless, the event was very enjoyable and enriched with knowledge for children. I took out picture books from the library and I explained the importance of taking care of flowers and keeping our environment free of garbage so that pollinators stay alive because without them, we will not have food and we will not be able to survive. Children listened to the stories, danced, and painted the birdhouses, and they were going to hang them in trees. We made connections in our community and learned to protect nature.
