Mill Creek opens new children’s garden

YOUNGSTOWN - The Anthony J. Fox Family Foundation Children's Garden saw its grand opening at Fellows Riverside Garden on Friday.

Named for the philanthropic organization, the Fox Family Foundation was an early supporter of creating a new children's garden, and was its largest financial contributor, according to Justin Rogers, Mill Creek MetroParks operations director.

“It’s named in honor of their son," Rogers said. "They saw the vision and were able to make it happen from a funding standpoint, and really got the ball rolling to encourage other donors and supporters to come to the forefront to make it a reality.”

According to Rogers, the Foundation was previously interested in financing the creation of a new educational space for children and was quick to throw their support behind the project.

"Integrating a children's space and educational space was a priority for them as well," Rogers said. "They came on after the concept of a children's garden was discussed, but when it was presented as one of our main projects that we were pursuing, they instantly bought into it.”

Before its opening, there was no dedicated children's garden in the Youngstown area, and it was a desire to fill in this gap that fueled the idea.

"Regionally, this area doesn't have a formal children's garden, so there was a need for that. It expands our educational and recreational opportunities," Rogers said. "Anytime we have new money, especially philanthropic, for projects, we really like to do it at a high level."

The Children's Garden is meant to serve not just as a recreational space, but also as an educational space where children can learn about the different aspects of horticulture in an interactive way. To do this, it hosts a variety of programs.

"It provides an opportunity for children, and for adults, to truly come into a space that is more interactive than Fellows Riverside Garden, and certainly educational ... there's a passive recreation component to it as well, so it just gets people into a new space to be able to learn about and experience horticulture," Rogers said.

"The different thematic garden spaces that we have include water play, canopy walk, harvest garden, wonder rooms and sensory areas. So you learn all the different aspects of plants in the natural world,” Rogers added.

The new garden also will allow Mill Creek MetroParks to build on already existing educational programs designed to teach children about horticulture. Rogers said park officials are excited to start inviting local schools to the new Children's Garden to host these programs.

"We have a harvest garden that will facilitate horticulture programs and learning how to grow. We've had a really successful children's veggie garden program for 20-plus years. So we're really looking to expand those opportunities from an education programmatic standpoint," Rogers said. "We can't wait to incorporate this into the rotation for our local schools. We have tremendous programs at the Metro Parks Farm and at the Ford Nature Center. This will be another education destination for local schools."

For those interested, the Anthony J. Fox Family Foundation Children's Garden can be found at Fellow Riverside Garden on McKinley Avenue.