Making Clouds Of Thought
10% of profit on every sale is Donated.
Total Donated: $214.50
Garden Boxes: $102.70
Coral Gardeners: $110.80
Every time you purchase an item you will be asked which of the 2 foundations you would like to donate to.
The donation is included in the prices of items already. Without plants or sealife most of the art we make could not exist so this is our way of thanking the planet. We would also love to see you donate directly to either foundation which will be explained below.
1. Coral Gardeners
To Donate Directly to Coral Gardeners type in: https://www.coralgardeners.org/coral-reefs
-The "Coral Reef" page on their website has a "get involved" link to help them and our ocean out.
Coral Gardeners explain themselves and the need for action in protecting our ocean quite well. Their website is https://www.coralgardeners.org and I highly suggest checking out some of their work and also the educational information they have posted on their website.
As Coral Gardeners put it on their website:
"The idea is to transplant coral cuttings into threatened areas of the reef. Once those little coral fragments grow, they will help recreate the reef environment and aquatic life will be able to return, and strengthen the new reef."
We hope our grandchildren get to see the beautiful animals, plants, and natural earth that we have the chance to witness. When it comes to helping the ocean, there are many problems and also solutions to put into action to fix those problems. Coral Gardeners has been chosen over any ocean plastic/ waste reduction or any other foundation that intends to protect the ocean for the simple reason that we believe Coral Gardeners will benefit from the small initial amount that we will be able to donate. We trust that this group of friends and ocean lovers living in the sister island of Tahiti, Moorea will spend the donation money in the least wasteful way. This is due to the lack of people in the organization ( nobody patting themselves on the back up top) and the lack of unnecessary advertising that other charity organizations get a bad reputation for doing. We want to see your donation money create results.
Every time we raise $100 for Coral Gardeners we will send that money to them promptly.
2. Student Garden Boxes
To donate directly to Student Garden Boxes please email makingcloudsofthought@gmail.com. Thank you!
Garden Boxes with students will be handled hands on by MCOT starting in Charlotte, North Carolina (USA). The deal is I am teaming up with "The Plant Guys" Organic Landscaping along with our friend and Highschool Horticulture teacher who inspired us years ago. He is now a Middle School teacher. (We have not yet cleared the plan with the school but if the proposal is turned down we have connections to other horticulture teachers and ensure you, we will make this happen.)
We want to catch students interest in growing their own plants early on. Every dollar donated is going into the boxes; I will not keep any of the money and the teaching staff from The Plant Guys will be volunteers that will receive a tip from my own bank account, not from the donation funds. As this project grows larger I hope and currently plan to only ever have volunteers so that none of the donated money goes anywhere except into educating the students.
What will we teach and how will the project be played out?
1. First you need the Garden Box. We will build the Garden Boxes before meeting with the class. When we first meet with the class we will have two 4x8ft boxes to give each student enough space for 3-5 plants. We don't want to bore them with learning how to build a box right off the back. Building the boxes is also the main likely danger for teaching the students. *We will have a blueprint to eventually share of the garden boxes to share with the class along with the list of tools and materials it takes to put the wood pieces together so they can try it at home with their family.
2. Soil. If you don't have good soil you don't grow good plants. The Plant Guys have studied organic mixtures of soils and their proportions over the past 5 years. We will start with the class by explaining the importance of a good soil mixture and letting the students put the soil mixtures into the garden boxes while we help supervise. We will thoroughly cover important factors like tools that help move soil around, how high to get the soil level in the box, what fertilizing is and how much to add to the mixture, and more; all while keeping their attention spans intrigued by having them use their hands while we talk.
3. Seeds. To really kick things off day one with the class we will have several types of seeds for each student to claim 3-5 as their own to take care of. When the students see their own actions turn tiny seeds day by day into mature plants, you could only hope that it would inspire and stick with their growing minds.
4. Care for our new plants. Before closing the first session with the class we plan to also teach them how often to water and how much water to put on each plant. We can build the class a watering chart so it stays on their minds to keep up with their new plants. If there isn't enough time in the first class session, we will hold another session to go over more detailed information within 2 weeks. Myself or one of the volunteers will be ready to revisit the garden boxes around 2 times per month to check for any struggling plants. We will have extra seeds and maybe even sprouts ready to make sure no student ends up with only dead plants to look back on once the project is over.
5. We may or may not hold another class session after the 2nd one depending on the guidelines that the school has for this project. I would be happy personally to revisit the class after about 3 months to see if any students have new questions and for any other important education I can easily pass on about agriculture. Teaching the students another similar project such as potting up one of their plants that they grew to take it home could happen in the future as this builds momentum. But Garden Boxes is where it all starts :)
***Currently putting together the budget for this project so we know how much needs to be donated before holding our first class session. The following is a list of what it will take to start.
-seeds (enough for each student to grow 3-5 plants)
-soil
-fertilizer
-wood panels