AAOS Built Ashe a New Playground!

Working hard in the rain to build "The Web"

On Tuesday, March 11, over 200 volunteers worked from 8:30am to 2:30pm to build a brand new, safe and accessible playground, for the students of Arthur Ashe Charter School and the surrounding neighborhood.  The volunteers kept up their spirits and delivered a beautiful playground - all the while working through a very rainy day.  The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons made this amazing new playground a reality!

The rain won't keep this rock wall from
being built!

Volunteers started work in a downpour and continued throughout the day.  This amazing new playground will bring joy to the students at Ashe, as well as to all the children in the neighborhood.  In addition to volunteers from AAOS, and FirstLine Schools, many college students, from local and out-of-state universities, also volunteered on the build.

Volunteers that built "The Web" testing it out

The volunteers were thanked throughout the day by Ashe students in a variety of ways.  Students walked around at lunch, handing out thank you letters.  The fifth grade came out and performed a thank you song, as well as sharing why this playground is so important to them.

Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

The ribbon-cutting ceremony featured the Ashe band; Dr. Frederick M. Azar, incoming president of AAOS; Brian Egana, Vice-Chair of the FirstLine Schools Board of Directors; Cynthia Hedge Morrell, New Orleans City Councilmember; and Sivi Domango, Co-Director of Arthur Ashe Charter School.

Thank you to all the volunteers for an amazing accessible playground that will serve ALL children.

Ashe Band at the Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

Attention, Edible Schoolyard New Orleans has a very important Shout Out!

Deborah Underwood leading an activity on Watermelon Day for Green

We would like to give a SHOUT OUT to all our interns and volunteers, for instilling environmental stewardship in our children; 

a SHOUT OUT to our interns and volunteers, for increasing our students’ academic success and upping the chances they'll go to college; 

a SHOUT OUT to our interns and volunteers, for maintaining safe, playful, and productive school gardens that show our city’s children the respect and beauty they deserve; 

and a SHOUT OUT to our interns and volunteers, for fighting the racial, economic, and social injustice in New Orleans one student, one seed, and one hour at a time.

Allow us to contextualize.

Zuri Obi shoveling compost at Ashe

This past calendar year, ESYNOLA offered 3,000 garden and kitchen classes for K-12 graders and hosted over 70 special events. Those are really high numbers, and it’s almost unfathomable considering that all of our classes involve experiential learning, which means small groups, hands-on activities, and lots of personal attention. This kind of intimate approach to education is how we teach kids and families about the ecology of Louisiana, where food comes from and how to prepare it, and how to live healthy lives.

Liz Mervosh participating in Iron Chef at Green

But our staff is not huge, and the communities we serve are expanding. As FirstLine Schools has soared in academic achievement, it’s grown from two to five schools (700 to 2,800 students) in the past five years. The support of our 500+ volunteers and interns in classes, on Open Garden Days, and at special events is the reason ESYNOLA has been able to keep up with this growth while maintaining the high level of personalized attention we give our students and our five school gardens.

So we are not exaggerating when we say that ESYNOLA could not do what we do without the passion, expertise, and generosity of our interns and volunteers.