What an awesome child! It all came about from him asking his mother why are kids hungry.
[h=1]Oliver, 7, uses $20,000 prize to plant five more community gardens[/h]
Oliver: gardens are growing Oliver Allen-Cillis shows off a pumpkin and the stand he used to sell his homeground vegetables for donation. Hamilton Spectator file photo
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For more information or to apply:
Contact Stacey Allen-Cillis at
[email protected] or Clare Wagner at the Hamilton Community Garden Network at
[email protected] or 905-540-8787 ext. 15. Or, visit the project’s website at
There will be five more community vegetable gardens blooming in Hamilton this summer, thanks to a
thoughtful little boy and his very green thumb.
After winning a for their successful community garden last November, seven-year-old Oliver Allen-Cillis and his family have decided how to use their award —
they’re going to plant five more.
Oliver, with help from his parents and younger sister, Piper, spearheaded Oliver’s Garden Project last summer at their Cumberland Avenue home, selling their organic produce to raise money for charity.
In a single growing season, they raised about $700 for The Living Rock. This summer, after placing first in
Nature’s Path Gardens for Good contest, they have a cool $20,000 to kick-start the project.
Along with their partner, the Hamilton Community Garden Network (HCGN), Oliver’s Garden Project will use the funds to expand the project with five more gardens in their South Sherman neighbourhood.
“(Oliver) has no idea, really, the size of it overall,” his mom, Stacey Allen-Cillis, said of the project’s new direction. “He knows as much as we do, as does his sister, but he absorbs it in a seven-year-old manner.”
For a kid, $20,000 is a lot of money. That can get you a lot of Lego — his favourite.
But this little gardener is thrilled his prize will go to help even more kids. The goal of the project has always been to teach youth about making a difference in their communities through organic vegetable gardening.
The expansion will provide five more families with all the supplies and education they need to start their own organic vegetable gardens in the community.
has also teamed up with Parkview Secondary School, whose students will grow seedlings.
“I don’t know how the heck we’re going to fit all these seeds,” Oliver said, listing off his loot from a recent trip to a seed swap. “But I’m really excited to grow more things.”
His goal this year?
“Getting people to help us out, that’s really what my mom and me want,” Oliver said. “We’re still trying to get more people so we can raise more money for charity.”
“We’re still trying to decide (which charity), ’cause there’s a lot to choose from,” he added.
Their first order of business is choosing which families will take on the new gardens. The only requirement for anyone wishing to be one of the lucky five (applications are due April 6) is that they live in the South Sherman hub and have a child between 6 and 18 years old.
