2010 Reading Garden Challenge

Each year, the Los Angeles Galaxy Foundation partners with The Home Depot Center Chartable Foundation, and The Home Depot to build Reading Gardens at local elementary schools.

In 2010, Stephen C. Foster Elementary School in Compton, Calif. was the Reading Garden Challenge winner.

As a result, four days of activities were planned at the school beginning on Monday, April 19 with an Earth Day Planting clinic for students, with seeds donated by the America the Beautiful Fund. On Tuesday, April 20, there was a clinic for students to paint pots and build birdhouses to be displayed in the Reading Garden. Supplies and materials were delivered on Wednesday, April 21, and the final preparations completed for the Reading Garden build.

The culminating event, the building of the Reading Garden, took place Thursday, April 22, Earth Day, with more than 80 volunteers from the LA Galaxy, Home Depot stores throughout the area, The Home Depot Center, and the NEA along with Stephen C. Foster Elementary School students building planters, installing arches and benches and planting flowers.  LA Galaxy players Landon Donovan, Edson Buddle, Omar Gonzalez and Todd Dunivant also lent a hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony.

More about the Reading Garden Challenge

Schools from Carson, Compton, Gardena, Long Beach, Lomita, Lynwood, Torrance and Beach cities are invited to participate in the annual Reading Garden Challenge for the opportunity to have a Reading Garden built at their school. The Challenge encourages schools and students (grades K-5) to focus on the environment by reading Dr. Seuss' The Lorax and completing the Challenge requirements for the opportunity to have a Reading Garden built at their school on Earth Day.  The top five (5) schools with the most completed entries are entered into a random drawing conducted by the LA Galaxy Foundation, The Home Depot Center Charitable Foundation and The Home Depot.

In 2010, the Reading Garden was funded with proceeds from the 2009 How Suite It Is! fundraiser and a generous donation from The Home Depot.  Additional contributions were made by the America the Beautiful Fund, who donated seeds for the Earth Day Planting Clinic, the National Education Association’s Lorax Student Earth Day, and Panera Bread Carson and Torrance.