Fun in Silver City for Preschoolers and Their Parents Tuesday August 22

Silver City, Nevada- United Way's annual "Tune into Kids" Fun Fair for preschoolers and their parents takes place Tuesday, August 22 from 10am to noon at the Silver City town park (next to the Silver City School House/community center at 385 High Street.) Silver City is located on the Comstock, 3 miles from Virginia City and 12 miles from Carson City.

The event, which includes free children's books, plus arts and crafts and hands-on science and literacy activities provided by United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra (UWNNS), is for parents and their children ages 2 years to 6 years. UWNNS supports parents with various resources as they nurture their children’s development, early literacy, health, nutrition and play. One of their goals is to double the number of children in northern Nevada who read proficiently by the end of third grade. With that goal in mind, UWNNS focus on early childhood development and learning, kindergarten readiness, early grade success and strengthening families.

Nevada Families First will also host a booth with fun things for preschoolers and their parents to do, and information about their program. Community Chest and Lyon County Human Services offer Nevada Families First free home visiting programs for families with children under 5 years old in Storey and Lyon communities, plus Carson City and Hawthorne. Home visitors offer information on topics such as nutrition, post-partum depression, health insurance, resources for smoking cessation, and breastfeeding, and they introduce activities that can stimulate a child’s mind and growth.

About the Silver City Summer Program: Each summer, the historic Comstock community of Silver City partners with local and regional groups and volunteers to offer free, public programming in science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM), with events at the town's park and community center. The August 22 Fun Fair is sponsored in partnership with Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties, United Way, and Nevada Families First. For more information about the annual summer program, contact Quest Lakes at 847-0742.

Silver City Garden Tour for Kids and Parents August 8th

Silver City, Nevada- Silver City Community Garden committee members are offering a tour of the garden for children with their parents on Tuesday, August 8th at 10am.

Silver City’s lovely organic community garden is celebrating its 9th growing season. The garden committee members who help make the garden thrive will lead a brief tour and explain a little about how plants grow from seeds and generate seeds.

Afterward, everyone is invited to find some shade in the park and do a garden related activity. Garden committee member Renate Victor explains, "They'll find rocks, wash and paint them, dry them on tarps, spray them with a fixative, and then place them around the garden fence to deter digging critters from coming into the garden."

Where is the Silver City Garden? Silver City is a small community located within both the Comstock Historic District and the Virginia City National Historic Landmark.The town is 3 miles from Virginia City, 7 miles from Dayton and 12 miles from Carson City. The town's unique garden is located across the street from the Silver City School House at 385 High Street. Take 2nd Street near the U.S. Post Office in Silver City, then go right on High Street to find the garden, just east of the School House.

How the Silver City Community Garden Got Started in 2009: In the spring of 2009, locals gathered at the Silver City School House to decide if there was interest in starting a community garden. Renate Victor explains that, "over the years we often spoke of communal gardening...and now we were actually planning to build straw-bale beds somewhere in Silver City and grow our own vegetables. In addition to the gardening passions of a few faithful citizens, and the occasional support of many others, we were further encouraged by the fact that Comstock Youth Works (funded through Community Chest through NevadaWorks’ funds) offered a summer program for teens that could provide a stipend for working in the garden.. The program also provided for an adult supervisor. We now had the work force to make our garden a reality...At the second meeting of the gardening group, we learned that Bill Young had offered his lot, across the road from the School House on High Street, for our garden site; a perfect spot. We established work groups: Planning and Design; Fencing; Composting; Straw-bale Assembly; Planting; and Irrigation. Two nonprofits, Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties and Community Chest, Inc., provided $600 for straw bales, fencing, seedlings, etc... Silver City resident Beau Guthrie showed up with his front loader and said he would level the garden-site and help load the straw-bales. He got us moving, and thanks to Beau and the young people of this town, bales were set and the beds were filled with the soil...The early days of May found us ‘playing in the dirt’. Resident Susan Stornetta brought “treats” for the soil and worked them in, Molly Allander and I drove to a ranch in Dayton where we shoveled aged sheep manure into the bed of her pick-up...The Comstock Youth Works teenagers helped care for the garden five days a week through the summer [of 2009] until mid August. They watered the plants, cleaned out the weeds, gathered willow twigs and branches to construct trellises to support the tomatoes that grew stronger and heavier by the day. They picked some of the greens and cucumbers for their lunch salads, and built a scarecrow that made friends with the visiting quail. A group of women met early on Sunday mornings to hang out, assess the garden and compost, water what needed to be, and share gardening expertise and recipes for using the vegetables we were growing. We would nibble on lettuces, arugula, spinach, radishes, carrots plucked from the beds, and take home an eggplant or squash for dinner. We also used vegetables from the garden for the town’s monthly community soup and salad dinners...Our community garden was lush. The tomato beds looked like a jungle. The sunflowers grew tall and had to be braced for the wind..."

The community garden has created an additional way for neighbors to connect and share. Renate Victor put it best when she wrote, “The real miracle of this project is the spirit of Silver City. We are a community of diverse individuals who may have little in common, but enthusiastically enjoy the things that unite us.”

The tour is part of Silver City’s annual summer art, music and science public programming.