“Care of the Earth” is a priority at First Congregational Church of Williamstown. Since 2007, our church has actively partnered with several groups, co-sponsoring grassroots environmental initiatives. This past autumn, a study group read Bill McKibben’s latest book Earth and began a conversation about how our church could become even more involved by initiating positive changes: helping town residents significantly reduce household emissions and thus Williamstown’s carbon footprint. McKibben believes that small scale agriculture is the key to such reduction; therefore the goal of our project is to grow new gardeners and, thereby, more gardens in the community. This project is part of a larger sustainability campaign, “In My Backyard,” facilitated by the Williamstown COOL Committee. We are collaborating with other community groups (as well as the COOL Committee) promoting new activities that can occur in one’s backyard. Our specific portion is to promote home gardens. We will offer a series of five gardening workshops for 10 households to provide instruction and encouragement to become gardeners. Workshops will include how to site, dig and plant a 4' x 8' sustainable bio-intensive vegetable garden. Hands-on practical work sessions with instructor and volunteers will help each household establish and plant their own and each others’ gardens. We will use mentor gardeners who will work with the novice gardeners. Follow up site visits from the instructor and "garden mentors" for support and advice is included. Additionally, there will be a demonstration garden sited at the church (located in the center of town thus enhancing the educational impact) that will model each gardening step and be a community reminder of the pilot project. There will be a kick-off program celebrating gardening, featuring a garden tour of established vegetable gardens in town, including the Williamstown Elementary School garden and the Zilkha Center garden. This program will be open to any and all and initiates the “In My Backyard Gardening – Living Lightly, Green Gardening” workshops. This opening program will be followed by the COOL Committee’s composting launch and then five gardening workshops for the ten households: Session 1: An overview of the vegetable gardening process -- green gardening within the natural cycle and the importance of soil. Session 2: Site selection, sunlight, soil health and what to plant (garden planning). Session 3: Double-digging , bed preparation and fencing options. Visits and work done at each other’s garden in a garden-raising or “crop mob” concept. Session 4: Planting. Session 5: Tending the garden - personal follow up sessions, weeding, tricks of the trade. Cover crops. The workshop will provide compost, seeds, seedlings and a gardening primer/workbook for workshop participants. A tool library will also be initiated with the purchase of four de-handled spading forks. The tool library will be located at the First Congregational Church and open to workshop participants and Williamstown residents. While growing more gardeners and modeling how a small garden can bring enjoyment and create a bounty for healthy living, we will reach beyond the 10 households by documenting the workshops and the developments in the demonstration garden. The Williams College Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives will help document the sessions (in addition to providing digging labor). Harvest from the demonstration garden will be donated to the Zilkha Center’s existing distribution network which goes to local food banks. We will collaborate with other garden programs (like the elementary school) to share knowledge and resources. We will utilize these various organizations to report on the progress, educate and inspire the wider community on the environmental impact that gardening can make and the benefits to overall food security. Having already learned about the gardening workshops, the First Congregation’s youth group is preparing a vermicomposting project. And two additional volunteers have committed to providing a canning workshop for Williamstown residents to focus on extending the growing season. Just like the workshops, the canning class will be held at the church. This first year is a pilot project meant to build collaborative ties and to test methods to further ingrain responsible and healthy living habits. We will use the kick-off gardening tour and the documentation of the process to extend the reach of this initiative. We will post progress reports in the church newsletter, the elementary school’s website, the local community-supported cinema, public television and we will distribute press releases to local media outlets.