About The BEP Intergenerational Community Garden Club
The Butterfly Effect Project is a youth empowerment program with a mission to "create safe spaces for girls (and now boys) to succeed." BEP was founded in 2014 by Tijuana Fulford, a Black woman from Riverside— one of the most economically disadvantaged hamlets on Long Island, NY— who was motivated to create an organization to support underserved youth and communities like her own, that offers holistic support, creates opportunities and broadens horizons.
The Butterfly Effect Project’s Intergenerational Community Garden was launched during COVID to provide the organization’s participants a safe way to connect and learn, while also meeting the community demand for healthy food and fresh produce. The garden is designed to foster learning, relationships, mutual respect, community spirit and service among gardeners of all ages and abilities. The Intergenerational Garden Club connects its now 35+members ages 3 to 85 to the value of nutritious food and diet, sustainable resources, and engagement with the fields of environmental and agricultural science on the East End of Long Island. The main objectives of the program are to connect and deepen BEP program participants’ relationships with their local environment, educate them about not only local ecosystems but also the threats to them, instill in them healthy and sustainable eating habits, introduce them to the array of careers in environmental and agricultural science and sustainability, and to develop the youth into the next generation of environmental scientists, stewards, and farmers.
The BEP Garden Club is thrilled to establish a ReWild Garden onsite to expand and deepen gardeners' learning about our local ecosystems, and further establish them as stewards of our environment. Not only will our young gardeners have the opportunity to learn about and care for native plants, they will share what they have learned with their Butterfly and Dragonfly peers and the larger BEP community.
Contact the garden
Brienne Ahearn
BEP Non-Profit Consultant & Grant Writer, Garden Club Coordinator
Design by Christine Iasso
Plant icons by Wren Halpern https://www.wrenhalpern.com/
Design by Christine Iasso
Plant icons by Wren Halpern https://www.wrenhalpern.com/