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A $25,000 grant to the North Carolina Botanical Garden at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will be used to create a garden on wheels for children in local hospitals.

A $25,000 grant to the North Carolina Botanical Garden at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will be used to create a garden on wheels for children in local hospitals.

The garden’s Healing and Hope Through Science program received a Sparks! Ignition Grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to develop the Plant Play Pushcart, which will be created in collaboration with the North Carolina State University College of Design.

The pushcart will be a hands-on, interactive nature exhibit that will provide a bedside field trip that is experiential, multisensory and safe for hospitalized children at UNC Hospital. Many of these children are immune compromised and for that reason are not allowed contact with natural materials—soils, seeds or live plants. 

“The Plant Play Pushcart will be an incredible new tool for us—a game-changer,” said Katie Stoudemire, Healing and Hope Through Science program coordinator. “With this cart, which I imagine will include a sealed greenhouse-type structure with built-in gloves, these kids will be able to plant seeds and then participate in the magical experience of watching their seeds sprout.”

Healing and Hope Through Science is a botanical garden program that brings science and environmental education to children at UNC and Duke hospitals, with the goal of promoting healing and hope through positive connections with nature.

N.C. Botanical Garden contact:  Nancy Easterling, (919) 962-9460, easterli@email.unc.edu

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