Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

I love my small town, it is my home and whenever I have the opportunity to give back to my home I do the best I can. My name is Lucy Carreno and I am from Venus, Texas. I have lived here my whole life and everything has pretty much stayed the same in my 17 years living here. I had been apart of Key Club (a high school student community service organization) for about a year before I decided to run for president of my high school's Key Club, which had been struggling to stay together because lack of participation from the members. I won, and soon after I was overwhelmed with service project ideas and fund raising ideas to kick off our organization to a good start for the 2010-2011 school year. My Key Club adviser, Mrs. Milburn recommend focusing on improving our local community. She recommended fixing up the community garden in our local town square; I wasn't quite sure who to contact first so I emailed Mr. Reed, the City Manager of Venus and that was just the beginning! Mr. Reed was excited to hear that the Venus High School Key Club wanted to take on another project (The year before we painted the rails and jungle gym in the local park.) and instead of fixing up just one garden in Venus he offered us the opportunity to fix 3 local gardens! Excited and a little anxious, I accepted the opportunity and informed my Key club. The City of Venus paid for all the tools, soil, and plants we would possibly need. The project was located in the town square in Venus, Texas; in a local donated community garden that hadn't been attended to in years.
During my project, with the help of the VHS Key Club, we were able to plant 20 shrubs, 10 pansies, and 5 large mums. And soon after when our local Newspaper, the Venus Vibe, published an article on the community service project we had undertaken on membership pool shot up from 20 students to 50 members! Now making Key Club one of the largest organizations in our high school.
Venus, Texas is my home town and will always be; as a community we are often overlooked because we are a small town in between two fairly large cities but as a town we want to show that we are a well kept community and take pride in where we live. By fixing up and planting our 1st garden in the town square we, the Venus High School Key Club, hopes to motivate others to contributing to the society.
My Apprentice Ecologist Project has not only motivated me but it has inspired passion for the community in my Key Club members as well. I plan to continue my community service and complete 2 more gardens for our community by 2012. Be the change you wish to see in the world, my mom always told me, and now I am that change.