Community engagement presents opportunities for ever-evolving growth and new perspectives. I have had the pleasure of learning about the Dayton community through the lens of Dayton youth during my position as the City of Dayton Office of Sustainability Outreach Fellow.
This summer, I discovered the most empowering and meaningful engagement of all is through collaboration.
Planting the seeds of passion for the environment and its bountiful resources begins through positive childhood memories of outdoor play and discovery. For the youth of Dayton, the love for their outdoor environment could start at summer camp.
Dayton Sprouts is a program initiated by Dayton’s current sustainability manager, UD alumna Meg Maloney ’18 and ’21. It is aimed at integrating topics of sustainability and healthy living habits into Dayton Recreation Center camps.
Through the support of University of Dayton fellows, the Dayton Sprouts program continues to thrive, providing outdoor experiences focused on sustainability and healthy living topics at the Lohrey and Northwest Recreation Centers for children ages 3 to 12.
Over the course of eight weeks, the 2026 Dayton Sprouts programming centered around garden beds in which the campers planted, tended and grew their own vegetables. In addition to learning about gardening, the campers completed one or more activities connecting back to core sustainability and healthy growing themes like energy, water, nutrition and composting.
Not only did the garden serve as an educational tool to exemplify these diverse themes, but it also served as a foundation for dialogue between myself, campers, counselors and recreation staff, allowing for individuals from various ages, cultures, interests, backgrounds and experiences to come together.
Despite our differences, we all connected over the time and dedication we invested in the garden beds. Each day at camp brought a moment of anticipation — for both campers and me — to see what might be happening in our garden, followed by the joy brought by tiny blooming sprouts to the eventual flourishing, vibrant green foliage.
By the end of summer, the campers, counselors and I discussed the product of our work over snacking on squash grown in the garden, and we all agreed the best part of our summer was watering and caring for our garden. Today, I recognize that a movement towards sustainability is rooted in the cultivation of curiosity, relationships and a shared mission within our communities, which can occur in an initiative as simple as a community garden.