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offered Dale. “It could make things interesting. Perhaps we are going to get this project off the ground I thought. I then called my pals, Jim Barefoot and Kathy McMullen, at Mediacom. “What do you need?” they asked. “Jim,” I responded. “He’s the best sound guy I’ve ever met. This is going to require his expertise.”
Using Television to Teach Kids Gardening By Gary Olsen
Megan Dalsing is a nutritionist from Hy-Vee and she is probably one of the fittest people I’ve ever met. When she hugged me once, I swear she left bruises. We had been working together on the hit series “Kids in the Kitchen” that is sponsored by and filmed at Hy-Vee. One day she asked me if I could help her recruit kids for a garden project she had in mind. Was I surprised that a nutritionist actually enjoyed planting and harvesting her own food? Of course not! I was intrigued, and I began asking questions. “Where is this garden going to be?” “On property I have available adjoining my home at Barrington Lake. It was my grandfather’s.” “Well, if I’m going to help recruit kids, this better be a television show,” I said. I was already seeing kids raking, planting, weeding, watering, and hopefully learning something in the process. And Megan’s insistence on the garden being organic was just one more wrinkle in the fabric of the show. Next, I consulted my executive producer of “Kids in the Kitchen,” Wally Brown, and he immediately asked me, “What do you think you’ll need… tools, plants, picnic tables, a porta-potty?” A list was started. There wasn’t anything Wally couldn’t get if we really needed it. “What about a helicopter? … Kidding!” I quickly added. “But that porta-potty is a great idea.” Another person was brought into our rapidly expanding loop: Sarah Selchert. She’s a friend of Megan’s and she happens to belong to the family that owns Steve’s Ace Hardware and Steve’s Home and Garden Center. Besides Hy-Vee, Steve’s Ace was a natural fit. She was enthused. But would kids be interested in gardening? We called a meeting with one of the middle school principals, Dale Lass, at Roosevelt, and he thought students might, but he wasn’t sure. He agreed to help promote it, and I started building a website with all of the details. And then I asked, “What if we have enough kids to form teams or tribes that would compete in various tasks associated with the garden?” “Kids love to compete,”
Then I remembered a guy I had met several months ago while I was having a conversation with Cindy Steinhauser, assistant city manager for the City of Dubuque. She reminded me that the Solid Waste Manager, Paul Schultz (with whom I was acquainted), was an expert in recycling and composting. “You should give him a call,” suggested Cindy. “I’ll tell him about your show because I’m seeing him this afternoon.” “Great!” I responded. I had a callback later that day. The City was on board with the picnic tables, and better yet, Paul Schultz agreed to be an on-camera expert in all matters of garden composting. He would create a state of the art composting operation at the garden site. The call for cast members went out a week before our first production day. That wasn’t much time. The clock was ticking and we had to get crops planted or we would miss our window of opportunity. I figured we would get about 10 kids, tops. The calls went out to all of the middle schools, and I kept my fingers crossed. On that first Saturday we were shooting, 25 families showed up! We almost had to call the Sheriff’s Office to help direct traffic. About half the kids have never gardened before. Among my favorite moments so far was this young man planting okra. I asked him, “Have you ever eaten okra?” “No,” he responded, “but I’m planting it.” We are shooting one to two episodes a week, and on a rainy day we toured the greenhouses at the Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. That was a great episode. As I film this, I’m amazed at the entertainment value as well as what everyone is learning. We have a parade of expert gardeners and farmers who are just delighted to some and help us. The show is called “The Garden Organic,” and the point of it all is to grow and garden with no chemicals and use only natural and certified organic plant supplements. So really, this isn’t just about gardening, but gardening organically. This is what makes our show totally unique.
I’m going to try to shoot the episodes and get them out as quickly as possible on our website and on Cable TV Mediacom Channel 19. As I write this, I already have five episodes in the can, and we have absolutely beautiful stuff. Every time I look through the viewfinder of the camera, I pray the tape doesn’t break or the battery go dead. It’s incredible. The kids are wonderful. There’s more than plants growing in “The Garden Organic.” We are growing character. Log on the www.dubuque.k12.ia.us, and click on “The Garden Organic” link. You can download the episodes right off the website. Gary Olsen is an award-winning media designer and producer. He is the public affairs coordinator and web developer for Dubuque Community Schools.